2017-18 Season Artist Feature

A BRIEF ENCOUNTER WITH ERIN MARKEY

One rainy Sunday afternoon, Erin Markey was sitting in a café near Madison Square Park, trying to come up with titles for her new play. She had four:

Hungry Actors Like Parts
Grown Women Having Slumber Parties
Grown Women Having (Platonic) Slumber Parties
Singlet

“I woke up one morning after having a dream,” she said. “It was a version of The Maids but the two characters are assistants to an Olympic weightlifting champion, and instead of trying on mink coats from their mistress’s closet, they’re trying on wrestling singlets.” Erin wanted to try her hand at “the kind of ping-pong power rapport” of Genet’s drama. She’s writing a play for two people, but with constant scene changes, and where every time scenes change, the two characters (and their relationship to one another) also change. “The stakes of the body in a relationship — any relationship — is what I’m interested in,” she said, as behind her one barista snapped a photo of another barista steaming some milk. “Companionship, jealousy, desire — the erotic undertones of a friendship,” she continued. “Whoever is performing it, there should be a palpable intimacy that you can feel if they’re in the same room. I mean outside of the context of the play. At the after-party. As human beings.” And what else, we asked, can audiences look forward to? “Live sex,” she said, and threw her head back in laughter.

PLAYING AT THE STARR MAY 16 - JUNE 2, 2018
VIEW DETAILS HERE

Sue Kessler