Signature Stories Volume 11 11 | Page 8

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