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Writer-Director Patrick Marber on Working With His Artistic Heroes

Slate Daily Feed

Slate

Business, News, Society & Culture

3.9 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, host Isaac Butler talks with Patrick Marber about his multi-hyphenate career. Marber started as a stand-up comedian; has written several plays including Dealer’s Choice, Closer, and Howard Katz; and is a celebrated theater director. They discuss how being a writer affects Marber’s directing; his experience working with older men such as Harold Pinter, Mike Nichols, and Tom Stoppard; and his direction of Stoppard’s new play Leopoldstadt, which is currently on Broadway.  After the interview, Isaac and co-host June Thomas chat about the particular challenges of directing large-cast productions, then they name the genius they would love to have collaborated with.  In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Marber talks about the casting of the Broadway production of Leopoldstadt and whether Jewish roles should be played by Jewish actors.  Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675. Podcast production by Zak Rosen. Check out Remote Works here: https://link.chtbl.com/remoteworks?sid=podcast.WORKING Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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My instinct always as a director is to not know more than the play notes because my job is to communicate the players best I can to the audience.

1:04.0

And if I go and do too much research, I'll be shoving in too many of my own ideas into it.

1:13.0

Welcome back to working. I'm your host, June Thomas.

1:17.0

And I'm your other host, Isaac Butler.

1:19.0

Isaac is always so nice to see you, but before we get into it, I must know whose voice we heard at the top of the show.

1:29.0

That was the very talented multi-hyphenate Patrick Marber who got his start in comedy was a stand-up comic and then he co-created Alan Partridge with Steve Cugan and Armando Ian Nucci.

1:40.0

And then eventually became a writer most famously of the play closer, which was made into a movie directed by Mike Nichols and stage director.

1:48.0

Oh, a theater person. Excellent. Indeed. And why did you want to speak with him right now?

1:54.0

Well, he is helming the new Tom Stopper play Leopoldstadt on Broadway. It's a play that chronicles a family of wealthy assimilated Jews in Vienna from about 1899 to the 1950s in a little over two hours.

2:11.0

Well, I am very excited to hear the interview, but I believe that you have an extra segment just for sleep plus members. What will they hear?

2:20.0

Well, yes, we do. Patrick and I are both Jews and this is a play about Jews and it's kind of a Jewish identity play and they clearly worked hard to make sure the Jews in the play were played by Jewish actors.

2:36.0

And so I wanted to talk to him about that and about whether Jewish roles have to be played by Jews or not.

2:43.0

If you are a member of sleep plus, you'll hear that at the end of the episode. And if you aren't, it's really easy to join.

2:50.0

And listen to this. For a limited time, you can get six months of sleep plus for just $29. That's 50% off.

3:00.0

As a member, you'll get no ads on any of our podcasts, unlimited reading on the slate site and member exclusive episodes and segments from our show and other shows like Slowburn, Amicus,

3:12.0

political gabfest and so on. Slates podcasts cover major news events from elections to social issues to historic court decisions.

3:20.0

Our shows also discuss what makes the song a smash, analyze what's going viral and decode cultural mysteries.

...

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