Stage Notes: Stitching

Stitching is a new-to-these-shores, controversial play by Anthony Neilson, said to be a part of Britain’s current “In Your Face” movement. His plays have been favorably compared to Harold Pinter’s, and been termed “angry” and “shocking,” while patrons have walked out because they were “offended.” This one is a two-character relationship play, with Meital Dohan playing the female. She is a renowned Israeli actress, who is known here for her role as “Yael Hoffman,” the sexy rabbinical scholar on Weeds. Starring opposite Dohan is Gian Murray Gianno, who played Robert Rauschenberg in Charles Mee’s play about the artist. The director is the handsome and versatile Timothy Haskell, who not only directed the 14-month run of I Love Paris (about Paris Hilton), but also the popular stage versions of two cult movies, Road House and Fatal Attraction, as well as the exciting, non-stop action-filled The Jaded Assassin. I spoke with Haskell, a long-time associate and friend.

Tom Murrin: Tim, you’ve had quite a lot of experience directing shows with fantastic fight scenes. Are there any here?
Timothy Haskell: (Laughs) It’s not the M.O. of this show. There is one brutal psycho-sexual fight scene, but only the one instance. It’s basically a twisted love story. The stage fights are not my focus this time. In the end, it’s a relationship drama.

TM: What role does “role-playing” play in it?
TH: In order for them to deal with the pain of the relationship, they adopt some rather highly sexual-charged role-playing scenarios, that one of them completely inhabits. One thinks it’s a game, for the other it becomes real.

TM: Can you be more specific?
TH: It’s largely a prostitute-john scenario that they do, because they don’t know how to relate to each other. They can’t deal with the relationship straightforwardly.

TM: How did you come to direct it?
TH: The playwright is in England, and he doesn’t give rights to his plays that easy. She (the actor, Meital Dohan) wanted to meet the guy who wrote it, and she went to London to meet him, and she got the rights. She approached me about directing her in it. I read it, and it’s definitely the best script I’ve worked on in a long time.

TM: What makes you say that?
TH: It’s dark and disturbing. It’s real and it’s hard to watch. It’s a real relationship. Thankfully I’m not in a relationship like this, but I do know people who are. The dialogue is real, the circumstances are real. It’s honest. They say what they think and they do what is real.

TM: I understand that she’s pregnant.
TH: In the first line of the play we discover that she’s pregnant. But what they decide to do is not your normal path.

TM: Any concerns?
TH: The reason I’m concerned about people coming to the play is that it’s a two-character play and a drama. But it’s a really exciting play, something that most people haven’t seen. There’s no gimmick to it. It’s two people trying to get through their relationship. It’s going to be about what people say about it after they’ve seen it.

The Wild Project, 195 E. 3rd St., (212) 352-3101. Previews June 17, opens June 25. Mon. & Tues., 7 p.m.; Wed.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 & 8 p.m. $45.

Photos by Jaisen Crockett