Penned by Olivier-nominated playwright John Kolvenbach, this intimate new play follows a man who has tried absolutely everything—from sensory deprivation tanks to extreme cleanses—to fix his life, only to end up right back where he started. Starring Jim Ortlieb in a tour-de-force solo performance, the production delivers a compelling portrait of a man bent by deep isolation who turns his focus entirely outward, falling profoundly in love with the audience itself.
Would you mind giving us an insight into what your show/event/performance is?
“You’ve tried everything. Yoga. Acupuncture. Therapy. You floated in salt water in the pitch black dark. You juiced, you cleansed, you journaled, you cut, you volunteered. You got a mattress that fitted itself to your fetal form. You ate only RINDS for three days and nights. You reached out, you looked within, You have tried.and yet here you are.”
So begins a new play by Olivier-nominated playwright John Kolvenbach. Jim Ortlieb delivers a tour-de-force performance as a man desperate for connection, bent by isolation, and deeply in love with the audience itself.
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved?
John Kolvenbach, an Olivier Award nominee, describes the inception of SUIYHT, “It was January 2021 and the vaccines had arrived, there was reason to be hopeful, but we’d just spent most of the previous year inside, masks and bleach and in Brooklyn, where I live, people crossing the street when they saw you coming, fear. The pandemic made the existing conditions of modern life worse. The isolation, the loneliness, phones, the politicization of everything, of science. And, perhaps less urgently, the theatres were closed. The artists I had worked with my whole career were mostly out of work. And so I began to think about a character, someone naive enough to believe that theatre had an essential purpose, believed that live performance, theatre attendance, was, now, especially now, an antidote to what we’d all just been through. The show is about a guy trying to do the impossible, or the nearly impossible: he wants to achieve a kind of union with the audience, a oneness. To blur the line between the play and the people who are there that night. That’s the ambition of the man in the play, but it’s also the ambition, (harebrained, maybe) of the play itself. We hope to have this actually happen. We hope for communion. And the actor, our everyman, Jim Ortlieb, is the hapless guy who thinks he can do it!
How does it feel coming to (back to) the Fringe?
It’s been a while, but yes. John was a reasonably young playwright 25 or so years ago and one of his plays was in Edinburgh. His advice? Dive in. Do everything, see everything. Make lifelong friends, connect!
And Jim was here for a week in the early ‘90’s, far away from where the action was. The Gare St. Lazare Players were ahead of the curve with one person plays when he did a one man version of Eugene O’Neill’s ‘Hughie.’ He feels more welcome now!
With shows from all over the world at the Fringe, what sets yours apart?
John’s use of the English language is playful, surprising, and ingenious. Jim’s delivery of his words is discombobulatingly simple.
On that, is there anything in the production or production team’s backgrounds which influences the way the show is performed or told?
Just that we are perfectly cast in our roles as playwright and actor. There is no play like this. Three monkeys with three typewriters and no time limit could not write, nor perform, this play like John and Jim do.
Is there anything specific you’re hoping the audience will take away?
An unforgettable experience will be tattooed on their memory.
Your Ideal audience is in attendance, who’s watching? Or more importantly – who isn’t…?
Our hope is to gather artists, artistics, art lovers, friends, family, foes, feudalists, adversaries, advocates, educated, the uneducated, bystanders, the poor, the rich, the Doubting Thomases, the know-it-alls, and the lonely to congregate.
It’s an intense month, so where you’re able, how do you plan to relax, and are there any other shows you intend to see or want to recommend?
We’ll get some rehearsal in during the early time that we’re there. Figure out our tech and all that. But once we’re up and running, on a typical day, we’ll get some coffee and go to a show. A breakfast of a show. Then we’ll take a walk and hand out some flyers. And then see a show for lunch. Then we’ll get over to our theatre, at Underbelly, the Dairy Room, for our 4:40pm show. Then, afterwards, we’ll have a show for dinner. Then, over a drink, we’ll unpack all of it.
Stand Up If You’re Here Tonight will run at Venue 302, Dairy Room at Underbelly, Bristo Square
Runs: August 5th – August 31st at 16.40pm
Photo credit: Nile Hawver
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