I write what I love.
And since I’m the
world’s leading expert
on what I love, I can’t
be wrong...That’s my
whole theory of
playwriting.
–CHARLES MEE
S: Big Love seems to be informed by the idea that love is the
basis for society. Is that something that you have thought
about with this play?
don’t run, I don’t do all of that stuff, and I love all
that physical activity. So, I get to just write it down
and other people do it for me. I write what I love.
And since I’m the world’s leading expert on what I
CM: Yeah. The people who really think theatre matters in the
love, I can’t be wrong. And then, since I’m not from
world say the tragedy of Western civilization is that it’s based
on the surviving trilogy the Oresteia, which requires - before you
Mars, there will be two or three other people who
arrive at an okay, peaceful world - justice. But the reality is, you
will like it too. That’s my whole theory of playwriting.
never achieve justice. You always have to get even. The other
TL: There’s so much one can express with theatre,
trilogy of Aeschylus, The Danaids, [which didn’t survive in its
and the tools are so multiple, and we tend to narrow
entirety], has fifty brides that murder the bridegrooms they were
it down to give hierarchy to the text. In real life, you
forced to marry and goes to the conclusion, “Well, look. All you
know, we communicate through our body, and through
brides murdered all these grooms, but we have to forgive you.
the tone of our voice, our pitch, our dynamic, how fast
Because the world has to be based on forgiveness and compas-
my hand is moving. Sometimes when you see actors in
I think of Chuck’s
pieces as a kind
of music.
sion and social love. And that way we can arrive at peace, and a
naturalistic pl