While cagey about his new play at the National,the actor and writer is fairly happy to ponder the clash between his mental tendencies and more populist stints as the voice of Rex in Toy StoryBorn in New York in 1943, Wallace Shawn has carved out a reputation for highly poetic but disturbing plays including Aunt Dan and Lemon (1985), and The Fever (1990),The Designated Mourner (1997), and Grasses of a Thousand Colors (2008). As a character actor he made his debut in Woody Allens Manhattan, and he is the voice of Rex in all three Toy epic films. He has also starred in two films made with his longtime collaborator,André Gregory: My Dinner with André (1981) and Vanya on 42nd Street (1994). Shawn’s new play, Evening at the Talk House, or has its world premiere at the National Theatre.
This is your first play in seven years; does it feel like an event?
My last one,Grasses of a Thousand Colors, took me 10 years to write. And this one I did in three or four. Anyone who’s ever heard of me will be pleased to know that this one is much shorter. I assume this is to do with my enormous number of years being alive. It’s either a deterioration of my brain, or a focusing of it,or a combination of the two. For so many years I’ve written plays that are mostly long monologues. But one of the kind things about the life of writing is that as you regain older, you’re suddenly different and you gain use of that in your work. And that’s fairly kind because, and for a lot of people,getting older and changing can be a unhappy experience that doesn’t provide that many benefits.
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Source: theguardian.com