Interview: Owen O'Neill of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION at Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre At The Warwick Theatre

I recently sat down with playwright Owen O'Neill to discuss the North American Premier of The Shawshank Redemption in Kansas City, at the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre performing at the Warwick Theatre. Here are excerpts from that interview:

The Shawshank Redemption is such a beloved story - what was it that drew you into taking on such a project?

Because of that very fact, we were in with a coop of comedians and writers in London and over the years we were coming up with ideas for us to do. So we did "One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest" and "12 Angry Men". I came up with the idea of doing "12 Angry Men" with 12 comedians. Everybody was intrigued by that. "Really, you're going to do it straight? Of course were going to do it straight, which we did do. And, it was great if I do say so myself. And, I think the reviewers are ready with a come on aww...this is quite good. So that was kind of the beginning of it, and then an actor friend of mine, Dave Johns, said how about Shawshank Redemption (when we were trying to come up with ideas)? And I said "that's a brilliant idea!" It's in a prison, so it's contained which will transfer to the stage quite well. There must surely be a play already and I checked everything and there wasn't. So I wrote a treatment, a 5 page treatment, and I took it to several producers who said it was a fantastic idea, but they never got back to me. Then I was in Ireland and there were several producers there, actually 2 very formidable women, and they said this is a fantastic idea we want to get involved in this. So I did a script, a first draft, which was a bit long. So I went back and did a few rewrites and then they said okay. Then they applied to Stephen King to get the rights which took a couple years.

We weren't allowed to use anything (unique) in the movie. We had to use the novella. We were allowed to use the title "The Shawshank Redemption", because the novella title was actually "Rita Hayworth, and the Shawshank Redemption. Actually, almost everything in the novella is in the movie with the exception of a few things. So, there was a lot of material, but we did have to come up with a few ideas of things that weren't in the book or the film. He (Stephen King) had final script approval and so it took another 8 months before he said okay. That was 2009 and then we opened at the Gayety Theatre. They cast it with two American's in the lead roles in order to get the accents right, but I was in with a lot of the casting. Then we got this guy, Kevin Anderson who played Andy, and also Reg Kathy who passed away last year (he played Red) and they were great. In the initial cast there were 20 which was unheard of for a drama. The Gayety in Dublin held 1200 people and it was rammed every night and it was fantastic - they loved it - and the reviews were good.

Then the London producers came on the ball and they persuaded their production company to take it to the West End which everybody was excited about. They changed the Irish cast, but kept the two leads. There was an awful lot of in fighting between the cast, we had an actor who was a recovering heroine addict (who wasn't recovering very well) and another who was an alcoholic - it was just an awful experience. They were all arguing about who was getting paid more and it all transferred to the stage. We opened far too early and they let in the reviewers who hammered it. It closed after 8 weeks.

But I knew we had a good show after the experience in Dublin. So then in 2013 I decided to strip it down to about half the cast because its too many to tour. We took it to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and I played the warden myself because we couldn't really afford anyone else. I played him like a Southern Baptist preacher kind of thing. It was kind of because of the Bible connection (in the original story) and you'll realize it when you see the play.

Then there was a production company called Bill Canright (?) Productions who tour all over the UK. He said he liked it and could tour it with actors who are on TV and we can get the bus, and he did that. It was a tour of the country since 2014 and it's been touring ever since. We toured Poland, Turkey, Japan, Russia - I didn't get over there to see all of them, but it was great.

I was in London, and met Bob (Paisley) - we were both doing one man plays and shared a dressing room for several weeks. You get to know a person when you share a dressing room. Bob asked me to come over to Kansas City to do my one man show, which we did. We were in Chubby's having breakfast and he said "...how about the Shawshank Redemption? Why don't we take it here to Kansas? Do you think we could get the rights in America?" I said I'd ask and they said yes, no problem. So here we are.

So you're here in Kansas City at the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre performing in the Warwick?

Yes, and it's an odd space because the audience configuration is split, which is okay. I asked Bob if they could make it work and they did. I saw it last night and it's quite a big cross and I wondered how it would look.

What scene are you anxious for the audience to see?

I like the way they did the rape scene, which is quite hard. In my script they are in the light with a spot on Andy's face, and they're behind him, so you don't really see much but their hands and heads and him taking his belt off - and he's (Andy) struggling and they throw him on the floor. In other productions they did it in the dark which drove me nuts. They did it because the area they were in and people will be too shocked. I said that's the whole point - there's gang rape in prison! The scene I particularly like is the Brooksie scene when he gets paroled and that's my favorite- I don't want to spoil it for you, but you'll have to see it.

You've been a comedian, an actor, a director, a poet, a playwright...Do you really wear one hat, or do you always wear them all?

It's weird, I'm asked this question all the time. My agents over the years have asked the same thing - they've said to me "you have your finger in too many pies and we don't know how to promote you". Well, I do all of these things, but we've had this argument over the years and I've gone through like 20 agents in 20 years. When I get an idea about something - if it's like a conversation or something I hear - and I think ah, it's a poem, then I write a poem. But if I see another thing and it's funny then I write a routine for comedy. I don't know how that happens, but if I was only a comedian then I suppose I would see everything from a single perspective. Whereas with me its either a poem, a comedy, a play, a script...I suppose I got into that because of the one man shows where I needed two more actors, but I couldn't afford it, so I'd play all the characters - I didn't really know what I was doing, but over the years I just taught myself how to do it, and that was something I did out of necessity.

Is there a dream role for you?

Good question, I don't know if I ever thought about it before. I guess I'd like to play the Jack Lemon role (Shelley "The Machine" Levene) in Glengary Glen Ross. He's the old guy just on the edge. I absolutely love the emotionally connected roles. I'd also like to play in "Death of a Salesman" or in August Osage County. You got me started on something!

Did you have a mentor?

Yes, Spalding Gray in the 1980's I thought he was amazing. He would drive into a small town and talk to people and take all these notes then get up and do a show. He'd go on stage and do a show ...well, ladies and gentlemen, today I met a man...and run with it from there, it was just amazing. Then he did this show called swimming to Cambodia where he had a small part - the killing fields, which he knew nothing about. He played a doctor and he said "I had this speech where I didn't know what the hell I was talking about. There were all these medical terms in a long speech" - so he showed it to me and he talked about how it transformed him. For him to talk to me about a personal journey like that really appealed to me. So, in all my shows over the years have been like that. And, Eric Bogosian did fine shows as well. Richard Prior, he's a hero - the things that happened in his life. When I heard Richard Prior I knew he was telling the truth about his life. He was a great storyteller.

What have been the biggest challenges with Shawshank?

My biggest challenge was when I was I was on stage playing the warden when quite a few of the actors decided to paraphrase everything. It was my script, but I was an actor so I had to take a step back. It drove me crazy when they put things in that weren't there at all. One actor kept using the same vulgar word over and over and it was just too much. I finally had to say something to the director. At one point the director left to work on another project so we were without a director. So then I had to deal with it myself. I called all the actors on stage for a meeting which was a really tough thing to do. They got really pissed off - saying..."you know, it's his own character and he's making it his own", but I said look I'm sorry, but you've got to do the script and if you want to change a word here or there that's fine, but when you repeat the same "expletive" 5 or 6 times it's too much. So they weren't happy with me so the next few weeks were a bit frosty.

How's the experience been here in Kansas City?

It's been great - the guys are really nice. At first they were quite nervous that the writer was here, it was quite sweet. I said "come on, it's just little ole me!" Little ginger skinny guy from Ireland. I said if you come up with a good line that's fine, by all means put it in - if it's a better line than I've written. I've had times where I've used things that just didn't sound the same in America. Like for instance I might use something like "He left the door ajar." They'd say here that the door was "cracked" and I never heard that before. So, everywhere is a little bit different and there's a little more than just putting on an American accent.

Where are you headed after Kansas City?

After Kansas City, I'm working on a screenplay called "The Safe", about a father and son relationship. I have a director/producer that's helping me with it now. There are a couple of actors I'd like to see in it and the director happens to know both of them and thinks they'd be interested. If we get them on board that's it, we'd have it made. So if we can get them interested that will fly and we should know by the end of June.

I'd like to see Shawshank published and tour here in America. It's so vast. Can you imagine it as a touring show - that would be my passion. It will be up to Stephen King's agency to say yes and if they're allowing us to do it here I don't see why not.

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The Shawshank Redemption performs at the Warwick Theatre on Main Street in Kansas City, MO from April 4-21, 2019 The show runs close to 2 hours and has an intermission between the two acts. There are some scenes of brief nudity and simulated assault.

Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre is located at 3927 Main St, Kansas City, MO 64111. There is ample parking behind the building. For tickets, call 816-569-3226. Visit www.metkc.org for more information or to purchase tickets online.

Photos courtesy of MET

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