Florida Stage had one of its biggest successes in its penultimate season with Israel Horovitz’s gritty drama, Sins of the Mother. And it seemed headed for another hit with the playwright’s Fighting Over Beverly, set to feature two-time Tony Award winner Frances Sternhagen, but the company closed its doors before that could happen.
Still, as artistic director Louis Tyrrell says of the 73-year-old Horovitz, a pioneer of the off-Broadway movement, “I love his work. I’d do whatever he sent me, I think.”
So when Tyrrell next founded The Theatre at Arts Garage in Delray Beach, and instituted a new play-reading festival patterned after the one he held at Florida Stage, he went to Horovitz for a submission. What he got was an explosive dark comedy, Gloucester Blue, which the reading’s audience roundly embraced. And now it will be fully produced in a world premiere run at Arts Garage, beginning today and running through Feb. 17.
According to Horovitz, the play began in his mind with a visual. “It was probably the image of two guys in white clothes painting a room blue,” he says. “From that image, I figured out I wanted to write about the idea of painting over things, and how they change in the process.”
What eventually emerged was a lurid tale of two blue-collar painters turning a former fish packing warehouse into an upscale condominium for a yuppie couple, an act which leads to violence and mayhem.
Recalling his initial reaction to the script, Tyrrell says of Horovitz, “He honors the traditional narrative, but he is also a great student of the absurd. That’s what he’s kind of exploring in this play in a very funny, if horrific, way. With who these characters are and what they’re capable of in their treatment of each other. It’s that timeless reminder of the monster within us.”
With more than 70 plays to his credit, it is hard for Horovitz to depart from what he has already done. Nevertheless, as Tyrrell observes, “In this play, I think the new ground he is breaking is trying to find that fine line between naturalism and absurdity, through the behavior of his characters and stylistically.”
“In style it feels like a departure, yeah,” chimes in Horovitz. “Mostly because I wanted to work with my son (Beastie Boys’ Adam Horovitz) doing incidental music. The piece looked like it was heading toward being like film noir. I thought it would be interesting to score a play in a way that I had never seen before.”
Commenting on the production’s soundtrack, Tyrrell says it “can at once pull you out of the play and comment on the play. And it makes you giggle, I think. It kind of comes out of the blue and doesn’t stay in the background.”
With fewer resources than he had at Florida Stage and a theater with physical limitations, Tyrrell has to select the material he produces carefully. “The plays I need to do here have to be simple in their delivery, and this one isn’t. This is two painters, skim-coating, priming, painting, transforming the stage night after night,” he says. “So we’ve taken on a big challenge in that technical requirement, but a challenge we think will be possible to achieve.”
Without actor housing or a travel budget, he has had to restrict himself to casting locally. Still, Tyrrell is excited about the company he has ― Steve Anthony and David Sirois as the painters and Andrea Conte and Michael St. Pierre as the well-heeled condo owners.
Mainly, though, he is pleased about the play. “I’m happy that in our first full season there is a world premiere play, because that sends a message that our interest continues to be in new work,” Tyrrell says.
Although Gloucester Blue certainly has things to say about class differences, “I think it’s much less about that than delicious storytelling of a certain style,” the artistic director adds. “I love the edginess of it, which is the realm of Arts Garage as it was at Florida Stage for so many years.”
“This play is really an entertainment, more than many of my other plays,” concedes Horovitz. “It’s both darker and lighter than my other plays. It’s for someone else to say, but it’s really a lot of fun.”
Beyond the fun, he says, “It’s a terrifying play. It should be.”
GLOUCESTER BLUE, The Theatre at Arts Garage, 180 N.E. First St., Delray Beach. Opens today, runs through Sunday, Feb. 17. Tickets: $30-$40. Call: (561) 450-6357.