It took several workshops for Vaxter to persuade Lewis he was fit for the role. “ reasons … I mean, I’m black and to have someone black play an animal on stage is one of the top five no-nos of theater and performance art.” “We went to workshops, and wasn’t having me play Bruno,” Vaxter said. The role of Bruno is especially important to Vaxter, because he had to fight for the opportunity to play the role. It’s our job to do the art and to do it truthfully.”Ĭlick here to check out a photo slideshow of the show. I think, as artists, we kind of feed off what people consider pressure because it’s our job. “You don’t get nervous going on stage because you know you’re supposed to be here people who pay money to come see you, and that kind of takes away the pressure.

“I think the same reason that I don’t feel pressure is the same reason don’t feel nervous going on stage,” he said.

Especially given the show is the first commissioned Englert work, possibly paving the way for potential successors. get the emotional feel of it I don’t have to stage a three-minute-long fist fight that becomes a murder.”Ĭarrying the weight of the show, as the principal character, might make many nervous. If I can use the dancers to use a representational form of that, I don’t have to rely as much on the actors.

“It’s a really language-heavy piece because the book is huge and is that heavy on the linguistics and word play. “ allowed me to abstract the world,” Lewis said. The added features make it possible to create the “unstageable” play. To balance the linguistic force of Bruno in the show, Lewis brought in various other elements, including video, sound effects, and dancers from the New Territory Dance Company. Of the 100-page script, adapted by director Sean Lewis from Benjamin Hale’s book of the same name, 70 pages are dominated by Bruno’s thoughts and words. “ has evolved past human beings he has alienated himself on purpose back in the laboratory after murdering a doctor,” Vaxter said. He tries to contain his original animal nature in pursuit of becoming something truly human. “His memoir is that, at one point, he was a chimpanzee, three or four years ago … His hope is that he’s come to share how the laws of evolution and the laws of language should be used so that the people in the audience can evolve, too.”ĭespite beginning life as a chimp, Bruno evolves into a type of chimpanzee-human hybrid with passions for painting, philosophy, and music. “ begins the narrative by explaining how he’s come to save the audience from their impending destruction by giving them his memoir,” said Barrington Vaxter, the actor playing the title role.

The evolution of bruno littlemore