Sufficient Merit is a new play by Emma Paige Baker, T’ai Hartley, Alia Lahlou and Eleanor Dunlop opening Friday 18th September at Canal Cafe Theatre in Camden. Find out more about what you can expect from this story of three struggling actors:
1: What was the initial spark that inspired you to create Sufficient Merit?
Sufficient Merit was inspired by the process of making this show. The moment we set our opening date, everything that could go wrong, did, and vision after vision turned into dust. The relentlessness of our (relative) tragedy became absurdly funny and ultimately, titillated us. So, we decided to write and perform a heightened version of our story in the four weeks we had left. We explore the impact on a friendship. What does pressure reveal about who we are and how we behave? And how much of it can we take before we lose ourselves?
Alia Lahlou – writer/performer
2: How does it feel to bring these characters you wrote to life?
It’s exhilarating to watch the three main characters–who were based on each one of us–grow out of us and start becoming their own people. This has been my favorite part so far. We haven’t had the luxury of time on this project. We’ve had to unexpectedly scrap everything and start over a couple of times, so it is happening all at once. Obviously, we had a sense of who these characters were when we wrote them but the truth is, they are revealing themselves to us as we inhabit them. It is thrilling to watch Tess and Ted come to life beyond what was written or discussed. And the more alive they become, the further away from us they are. There is magic in that because you have to remain incredibly open, humble and curious for any of that to unfold.
Alia Lahlou – writer/performer
3: How did the writing progress develop with four writers? Were there any complications on the direction of the story?
It’s been interesting trying to navigate how to divvy up the workload actually. None of us had worked together as writers before, so we’re very much making it up as we go along. We ended up going with a model that (I assume?) is used by many television writers’ rooms, where one of us is the “steward” of a particular scene and the other three can make suggestions, rewrite or give feedback–but the steward ultimately has final say. Then obviously once it’s on its feet, we make little tweaks as actors for the final polish. It’s nice to be able to view the script from multiple angles that way.
T’ai Hartley – writer/performer
4: As the show is inspired by true events, how much of the show is accurate to real life?
Haha, I would say at this point it’s highly fictionalized. The essential story arc–three actors needing to put on a play which keeps getting roadblocked–is the truth of it. We had set our dates with the Canal Cafe Theatre; we had gotten the rights to a play it took us ages to decide on–and one week into rehearsal, we found out the playwright was in the Epstein files. So we had to pull the plug. After that, we kept getting hit with more bad news until we finally decided–with a month to go, mind you–that we would write our own play based on this whole experience.
T’ai Hartley – writer/performer
5: How does performing a piece you wrote change your perspective when performing?
There’s both a freedom and a terror in knowing that if something isn’t doesn’t work when you get it up on its feet, it’s entirely down to you. We’ve all had scripts where we’ve looked at that one line and thought, “How am I going to make this sound honest and like something a normal human would say?” But when you’ve written it, you have the chance to change it–and the challenge to come up with something better is entirely yours (collectively). It’s one thing to bang out a joke or a heartfelt exchange in the delirious early hours, but another entirely to hear it aloud in the broad light of day. I personally have to force myself to turn off my writer brain when we’re rehearsing, because there’s always a small corner of it sat back going, “ah, that could be tighter/more specific/funnier/fleshed out.”
Emma Baker – writer/performer
6: What was a memory from rehearsals that sticks out to you and why?
Anytime Bob comes onstage, it’s a challenge to keep a straight face. We all take turns playing him, and every improv exercise we did to discover the structure of a scene always had him stealing the show. That, and introducing Eleanor to both blimps and the song “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy,” both of which now feature in the working script. We won’t say how!
Emma Baker – writer/performer
7: What do you think audiences will take away from the production?
At its heart, this is a David and Goliath story: we see three creatives, pretty much unknown to anyone beyond one another (and a chihuahua), facing up to the powerful, power-hungry antithesis to everything they stand for. And choosing to fight.
In a socio-political climate where many of us feel our selves and our creations are unwelcome, I feel it’s all the more important to keep inserting them into the conversation. As creatives, the best resistance we have against it all (the Man, the Machine, the System, etc.) is not just to exist, but to create and tell our real, human stories. I hope the audience can see this as a call to action: make things and share them with the world.
It’s also just stupid, utterly ridiculous really, and hopefully rather funny. So I hope the audience can have some good laughs, too.
Eleanor Dunlop – writer/director
9: As the only creative not performing, if you could choose a role, who would you pick?
Bob! He is such an enigma. Where is he from? Why is he invested? What is his accent?
Emily Serdahl – director
10: Where would you like the show to go from here?
The Fringe to Netflix pipeline would be nice!
Emily Serdahl – director
Sufficient Merit opens Friday 18th September at Canal Cafe Theatre. Many thanks to the Alia, T’ai, Emma, Eleanor and Emily for answering our questions. Book your tickets!
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