Actor’s Express’ Production Of ‘Red Speedo’ Dives Into Issues Surrounding Sports Culture
“Red Speedo” is being performed at Actor’s Express through Sep. 5.
Actor's Express
If you’re sad that the 2021 Toyko Olympics ended with us watching the games on TV, a new production at Actor’s Express, “Red Speedo,” may ease your grief. The play, written by Lucas Hnath, follows a swimmer attempting to qualify for the Olympics. Marlon Burnley, the actor playing our protagonist Ray, joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom along with Actor’s Express Director and the director of “Red Speedo,” Freddie Ashley, to talk about the new production and the thrilling yarn it spins about athletes making a splash.
“This playwright is one who I have a particular fondness for,” Ashley said. “We’ve done a couple of his other plays, ‘The Christians’ and ‘The Doll’s House Pt. 2.‘ And what I like so much about this one is that aside from being entertaining, with plot twists and snappy dialogue, and all kinds of fun stuff, it also is something of an allegory for the state of American values, and I thought it was a really interesting time to explore that.”
“Red Speedo” throws its main character, Ray, into an ethical quandary as he sets his sights on the Olympics. “There have been some performance-enhancing drugs found in a shared refrigerator at his training facility,” Ashley said. “As the play unfolds, you find out who in Ray’s life has an agenda for his success, and how they’re pinning their hopes and dreams on his making the team, and all kinds of questions about the drugs themselves and the indications thereof, really swirl around inform everything that happens.”
Brunley weighed in on his impressions of Ray, whom he portrays in the Actor’s Express production. “His eyes are bigger than his stomach,” Burnley said. “He’s larger than life. He has really big goals and dreams, and he goes after that. In a way, he’s kind of fearless. When he loves, he loves hard, and when he hurts, he feels that deeply.”
The play’s production warranted an especially creative approach to set design, incorporating the impression of an Olympic-quality training pool. “The way we designed the set … The playing area sort of floats over the pool, so the pool is ever-present, though it’s not swam in,” Ashley said. “And we wanted to create this world that was isolated unto itself, with little escape, that the characters are in this time and space in a very concentrated way.”
The production team even made sure to have the smell of chlorine permeating the theater, ensuring maximum sensory engagement.
“Red Speedo’s” Ray, and his entanglement with performance-enhancing drugs, invite audiences to reflect on issues very much present in sports culture. “For me, what was resonant about the timing, was less about the doping itself, and more about understanding with new eyes that pressure — based on how courageous Simone Biles was to step away the competition, despite what must have been extraordinary pressure for her to perform,” Ashley said. “Her having taken that very brave step, just as we were beginning to rehearse the play, was definitely something that was in the air as we started our work.”
But the play keeps a brisk pace and a curious attitude, never going so far as to tell its audience what to think. “[Lucas Hnath’s] plays often hold contradictory ideas all at once,” Ashely said. “For me, the snappy dialogue and the plot twists are just kind of a cherry on top of this really crackling drama of ideas.”
“Red Speedo” is showing at Actor’s Express at the King Plow Arts Center from Aug. 11 through Sep. 5. Tickets and more information are available at www.actors-express.com/plays/red-speedo.
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