David Morse (‘How I Learned to Drive’) on returning to Paula Vogel’s play 25 years later: ‘There was this sort of pattern built into us, emotionally’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“I can feel who I am now, bringing stuff to this that wasn’t there before,” reveals “How I Learned to Drive” star David Morse. The actor is stepping back into the shoes of Uncle Peck in the Broadway production of Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama 25 years after originating the role Off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre in 1997. He is joined by fellow original cast members Mary-Louise Parker and Johanna Day in this Manhattan Theatre Club revival, and the actors have had plenty of time to reflect on the ways in which their 25 years of life experiences have “enriched” this production. Watch the exclusive video interview above.
Morse says that the question “why now?” was an important one that hung in the air when starting work on this production. Vogel and Parker had attempted to bring the play to Broadway for many years, but scheduling and theater availability became perpetual obstacles. So when the stars finally aligned, Morse began asking himself “are we just doing this to do it? Is it important to be doing it and is it important for the world to have this?”
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Indeed, the world has changed since Vogel’s script first rocked audiences. What appears on the surface to be a sweet story of the connection between an uncle and his niece quickly turns into a powerful examination of sexual abuse. Morse needed to know how the script would fit in a world where people have become more emboldened to discuss abuses of sex and power. So, the team gathered for a two day period of rehearsal and discussion about their lives since the original production, and why this script still spoke to them. “Those two days were essential, revealing, personal, and very moving,” states Morse. “And it brought us together in a deeper way than we had been together before.”
“I was a little fearful coming into it,” admits the actor. The experience of the play over two decades ago had such a lasting impact that he was worried he wouldn’t be able to deviate from how his younger self played it. “I really didn’t want to be locked in,” he explains, “we’re new people, in a new world.” But that original experience is part of what makes this reunion so special. Lines had to be relearned, and their deliveries have been adjusted. Still, Morse suggests that the play remained so “vivid” in the actors’ minds that “there was this sort of pattern built into us, emotionally.”
Morse is also appreciative of the simplicity to the staging of this piece. The production is more concerned with the dialogue and inner life of the characters, rather than massive pieces. The actor thinks this creates an environment that “is sort of like an extension of the rehearsal process.” It’s a chance for the audience to get a glimpse into a space that almost feels like the rehearsal studio, and the freedoms which that space elicits. “That world you’ve created in your mind… it’s your imagination,” the actor notes of the creative process. Experiencing the audience give themselves over to an imagined world, is part of what makes him excited to dive into this story again. “It’s the magic of theatre,” beams Morse.
Morse won the Lucille Lortel, Obie, and Drama Desk Awards for his performance in the Off-Broadway run of “How I Learned to Drive.” He earned Emmy nominations for “John Adams” and “House,” and a Tony nomination for the recent revival of “The Iceman Cometh.”
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