hear him pandering in fear to the court censors. The play loses all believability at the end. It clearly isn’t
the real ending of the play. It's the censorship end. So I felt this was sort of liberating that.
INTERVIEWER: Was Collier's censorship efforts a parallel to the Hays Office, which stepped in to control
motion picture standards in the '30s?
AMY FREED: Total. It’s very much like the 1920s to me. One of the things that’s amazing to me, as
someone obviously interested in the Puritans, is how that streak lives on in America. And how our
preoccupation with other people’s business seems to be a very American thing. And it comes back and
back and back.
INTERVIEWER: We seem to have just crested a period of alignment between religious and political
conservatism.
AMY FREED: Well, yeah. It’s interesting, in American life there are two extreme positions that keep
fighting for dominance. One end includes the amoral, incredibly vulgar and prevalent pornography, that is
just everywhere and that has really sinister overtones which the Internet has promulgated. The sort of
incredibly awful side of the sex industry. And that’s everywhere thanks to the electronic age, on one
side. And then you’ve got the sort of radical fundamental religious element responding in backlash in
some ways. But what we always seem to be missing is the sort of a healthy middle, like a really mature
kind of freedom.
INTERVIEWER: Maybe that's the group that in its balance is less assertive and aggressive. There isn't a
capitalist incentive in being circumspect.
AMY FREED: Well that’s very true.
INTERVIEWER: Both ends are really profit driven.
AMY FREED: It’s true. My whole life I’ve watched this struggle since Spiro Agnew and his moral majority
days. There seems to be this polarization of elements. It was true in the Restoration, too. They had a
similar pattern, from living under Cromwell so long, with no theater and a Puritan regime. And when
Charles II came in it was like Bill Clinton in the White House.
Also, the theater moved indoors. It was different than the Elizabethan Theatre, it became more designed
for the court and the courtiers and the upper classes. The thing about the Restoration that also appealed
to me was that is was the Golden age of the satirist: a great age for satire and critical reflection of the
people. My students at Stanford worked with me when I was first dealing with this material. We did
Cibber’s play and some scenes from 'The Relapse' and they were just gobsmacked. They thought it was
just like “Sex in the City.” They couldn’t believe there was an openly gay character, which I don’t
remember seeing in any of the other Restoration plays. Old Coupler, the marriage broker, was an older
gay man rather lovingly drawn. That, and the frankness and the bawdiness and the joyfulness of young
hot sexuality as it’s ascribed, even in 'Love’s Last Shift,' which is rather a cruddy play, but fun in that
way. It was so immediate, it was really great. So I did want to get that material back onto the boards.
INTERVIEWER: But not the originals necessarily.
AMY FREED: They’re too hard to do. You can’t really do the originals effectively, I believe, in this country
anyway, anymore. The language is too difficult. The references are too specific to events of the 1690s.
It’s almost like you’re trying to take the audience through a museum piece just in terms of the references.
So it doesn’t really pay off. For scholars it does, but I don’t think so much for everybody.
The Restoration plays are driven in part by a hatred of marriage as an institution. Iin England here was no
divorce until Shaw’s time, so you were stuck in these marriages, which were economic. It was the age
of primogenitor, where the older brothers were the inheritor of the father’s estate. So the themes, the big
theme in the Restoration is that the younger brothers are desperately starved out by the older brothers.
Left with nothing. Nothing. The marriages were about survival. They weren’t about love. And people
suffered terribly under it. 'The Beaux' Strategem' by Farquhar, for example, is about guys scheming and
striving to find a woman who comes with an allowance and inheritance. So, with Farquhar, who was a
wonderful writer from a later time period, as with Vanbrugh, you see these women trapped with
absolute brutes. It’s a source of comedy but it’s a very bitter look at what the situation was. Vanbrugh
set up the situation in 'The Relapse' with a woman married to an absolute horndog rake of a husband,
who will just be screwing other women for the rest of their lives. And she can’t get out of it. And there’s
another man who’s a worthy man, named Mr. Worthy in my play, who loves her and she loves him and
they can’t be together and that’s how he ends his play.
INTERVIEWER: Well, despite the high number of divorces today, people will still recognize the sense of
being trapped and certainly the idea of extra-marital affairs.
AMY FREED: What’s interesting about Restoration plays is their pungency and their frankness. They
were not sentimental until they were made sentimental. So you really feel the contemporary reach of
human beings you identify with. They’re very funny about the same stuff we are about today, which is
money and sex.
INTERVIEWER: So people need to know, going into this play, if anything, that you have not impinged a
modern sensibility on an old style, if nothing else, you’ve gone in and revitalized what was quite lively
then.
AMY FREED: Well, yeah. The fuel of those plays had a lot to do with people trapped in marriage they
couldn’t get out of and now we’re in a time period where people who love each other can’t get married.
We’re still dealing with the same level of social prejudice. It’s changed its face, but the human heart and
the human desires have remained the same. And we recognize all the characters: the gossips, the
hypocrites, the impoverished. It’s very Dickensian. But if you try to do those old plays, you’ll just die on
the language. It’s harder than Shakespeare, really, to make clear. So I try in my play, I’m not doing
anything too physical with it. I’m just tying to keep it in the feeling of the period but have it feel like human
beings talking so nobody in the audience today will have to struggle. I’ve still got a lot of rhythmic and
poetic cadence, but . . . .
INTERVIEWER: But the actions and the sentiments are right out of the period.
AMY FREED: Right. Exactly.
INTERVIEWER: Did it give you pause that you were using such a generic term for the title?
AMY FREED: You know, actually, I think it’s kind of perfect. I went through a lot of titles. For a along time
my working title was 'Amanda.' I first went with the title 'Amanda' because another goal for me in the play
was to change it so the leading lady had some real character. She was just cardboard in the old play.
So I really made her the protagonist of my play. So I went with 'Amanda,' but it doesn’t communicate
enough. I wanted a prospective audience to know that it was going to be a period play and if I went with
titles like those of the period, like ‘Love in a Tub,’ then they think it’s a true Restoration and I’d have to do
another round of explanation. So, how was I going to communicate that it is a comedy of a certain
historical style and yet not a vintage piece? So after much searching I think I did the job pretty well in that
respect. ‘Cause in the title it becomes clear that it wasn’t actually of that vintage, but you know what you’
re in for in terms of the costumes.
INTERVIEWER: Did you entertain a second title like so many have? 'Love's Last Shift' was 'Love's Last
Shift, or Virtue Rewarded?'
AMY FREED: 'Or,'Amanda?'
INTERVIEWER: Would that be it?
AMY FREED: I would probably do it with the woman’s name. Since that was my original title anyway. . .
That’s a good idea though.
the real ending of the play. It's the censorship end. So I felt this was sort of liberating that.
INTERVIEWER: Was Collier's censorship efforts a parallel to the Hays Office, which stepped in to control
motion picture standards in the '30s?
AMY FREED: Total. It’s very much like the 1920s to me. One of the things that’s amazing to me, as
someone obviously interested in the Puritans, is how that streak lives on in America. And how our
preoccupation with other people’s business seems to be a very American thing. And it comes back and
back and back.
INTERVIEWER: We seem to have just crested a period of alignment between religious and political
conservatism.
AMY FREED: Well, yeah. It’s interesting, in American life there are two extreme positions that keep
fighting for dominance. One end includes the amoral, incredibly vulgar and prevalent pornography, that is
just everywhere and that has really sinister overtones which the Internet has promulgated. The sort of
incredibly awful side of the sex industry. And that’s everywhere thanks to the electronic age, on one
side. And then you’ve got the sort of radical fundamental religious element responding in backlash in
some ways. But what we always seem to be missing is the sort of a healthy middle, like a really mature
kind of freedom.
INTERVIEWER: Maybe that's the group that in its balance is less assertive and aggressive. There isn't a
capitalist incentive in being circumspect.
AMY FREED: Well that’s very true.
INTERVIEWER: Both ends are really profit driven.
AMY FREED: It’s true. My whole life I’ve watched this struggle since Spiro Agnew and his moral majority
days. There seems to be this polarization of elements. It was true in the Restoration, too. They had a
similar pattern, from living under Cromwell so long, with no theater and a Puritan regime. And when
Charles II came in it was like Bill Clinton in the White House.
Also, the theater moved indoors. It was different than the Elizabethan Theatre, it became more designed
for the court and the courtiers and the upper classes. The thing about the Restoration that also appealed
to me was that is was the Golden age of the satirist: a great age for satire and critical reflection of the
people. My students at Stanford worked with me when I was first dealing with this material. We did
Cibber’s play and some scenes from 'The Relapse' and they were just gobsmacked. They thought it was
just like “Sex in the City.” They couldn’t believe there was an openly gay character, which I don’t
remember seeing in any of the other Restoration plays. Old Coupler, the marriage broker, was an older
gay man rather lovingly drawn. That, and the frankness and the bawdiness and the joyfulness of young
hot sexuality as it’s ascribed, even in 'Love’s Last Shift,' which is rather a cruddy play, but fun in that
way. It was so immediate, it was really great. So I did want to get that material back onto the boards.
INTERVIEWER: But not the originals necessarily.
AMY FREED: They’re too hard to do. You can’t really do the originals effectively, I believe, in this country
anyway, anymore. The language is too difficult. The references are too specific to events of the 1690s.
It’s almost like you’re trying to take the audience through a museum piece just in terms of the references.
So it doesn’t really pay off. For scholars it does, but I don’t think so much for everybody.
The Restoration plays are driven in part by a hatred of marriage as an institution. Iin England here was no
divorce until Shaw’s time, so you were stuck in these marriages, which were economic. It was the age
of primogenitor, where the older brothers were the inheritor of the father’s estate. So the themes, the big
theme in the Restoration is that the younger brothers are desperately starved out by the older brothers.
Left with nothing. Nothing. The marriages were about survival. They weren’t about love. And people
suffered terribly under it. 'The Beaux' Strategem' by Farquhar, for example, is about guys scheming and
striving to find a woman who comes with an allowance and inheritance. So, with Farquhar, who was a
wonderful writer from a later time period, as with Vanbrugh, you see these women trapped with
absolute brutes. It’s a source of comedy but it’s a very bitter look at what the situation was. Vanbrugh
set up the situation in 'The Relapse' with a woman married to an absolute horndog rake of a husband,
who will just be screwing other women for the rest of their lives. And she can’t get out of it. And there’s
another man who’s a worthy man, named Mr. Worthy in my play, who loves her and she loves him and
they can’t be together and that’s how he ends his play.
INTERVIEWER: Well, despite the high number of divorces today, people will still recognize the sense of
being trapped and certainly the idea of extra-marital affairs.
AMY FREED: What’s interesting about Restoration plays is their pungency and their frankness. They
were not sentimental until they were made sentimental. So you really feel the contemporary reach of
human beings you identify with. They’re very funny about the same stuff we are about today, which is
money and sex.
INTERVIEWER: So people need to know, going into this play, if anything, that you have not impinged a
modern sensibility on an old style, if nothing else, you’ve gone in and revitalized what was quite lively
then.
AMY FREED: Well, yeah. The fuel of those plays had a lot to do with people trapped in marriage they
couldn’t get out of and now we’re in a time period where people who love each other can’t get married.
We’re still dealing with the same level of social prejudice. It’s changed its face, but the human heart and
the human desires have remained the same. And we recognize all the characters: the gossips, the
hypocrites, the impoverished. It’s very Dickensian. But if you try to do those old plays, you’ll just die on
the language. It’s harder than Shakespeare, really, to make clear. So I try in my play, I’m not doing
anything too physical with it. I’m just tying to keep it in the feeling of the period but have it feel like human
beings talking so nobody in the audience today will have to struggle. I’ve still got a lot of rhythmic and
poetic cadence, but . . . .
INTERVIEWER: But the actions and the sentiments are right out of the period.
AMY FREED: Right. Exactly.
INTERVIEWER: Did it give you pause that you were using such a generic term for the title?
AMY FREED: You know, actually, I think it’s kind of perfect. I went through a lot of titles. For a along time
my working title was 'Amanda.' I first went with the title 'Amanda' because another goal for me in the play
was to change it so the leading lady had some real character. She was just cardboard in the old play.
So I really made her the protagonist of my play. So I went with 'Amanda,' but it doesn’t communicate
enough. I wanted a prospective audience to know that it was going to be a period play and if I went with
titles like those of the period, like ‘Love in a Tub,’ then they think it’s a true Restoration and I’d have to do
another round of explanation. So, how was I going to communicate that it is a comedy of a certain
historical style and yet not a vintage piece? So after much searching I think I did the job pretty well in that
respect. ‘Cause in the title it becomes clear that it wasn’t actually of that vintage, but you know what you’
re in for in terms of the costumes.
INTERVIEWER: Did you entertain a second title like so many have? 'Love's Last Shift' was 'Love's Last
Shift, or Virtue Rewarded?'
AMY FREED: 'Or,'Amanda?'
INTERVIEWER: Would that be it?
AMY FREED: I would probably do it with the woman’s name. Since that was my original title anyway. . .
That’s a good idea though.
| THEATER TIMES DIALOGUE |
INTERVIEWER: And writers.
AMY FREED: And writers.
INTERVIEWER: You've
"appropriated," as you've said,
elements of two plays from 1696
-- Cibber Colley's 'Love's Last
Shift' and John Vanbrugh's
sequel to it, 'The Relapse' -- and
created a kind of trilogy for these
characters. That's a fascinating,
and bold, step.
AMY FREED: These were the
plays that brought in Jeremy
Collier, the court censor, to bring
his diatribe against profaneness
of the English stage. Vandrugh
was frantically issuing
disclaimers and apologies and the
ending of 'The Relapse,' which is
a very frank play, you can just
AMY FREED: And writers.
INTERVIEWER: You've
"appropriated," as you've said,
elements of two plays from 1696
-- Cibber Colley's 'Love's Last
Shift' and John Vanbrugh's
sequel to it, 'The Relapse' -- and
created a kind of trilogy for these
characters. That's a fascinating,
and bold, step.
AMY FREED: These were the
plays that brought in Jeremy
Collier, the court censor, to bring
his diatribe against profaneness
of the English stage. Vandrugh
was frantically issuing
disclaimers and apologies and the
ending of 'The Relapse,' which is
a very frank play, you can just
HENRY DiROCCO
| THEATER TIMES DIALOGUE / AMY FREED |
Amy Freed is an American
playwright. She was
nominated as a finalist in the
drama category of the 1998
Pulitzer Prizes for her play
Freedomland. In addition to
Freedomland, she is the
author of The Beard of Avon
and Safe in Hell (all
commissioned and premiered
by South Coast Repertory),
The Psychic Life of Savages,
and other plays. Her work
has also been produced at
New York Theatre
Workshop, Seattle Repertory,
American Conservatory
Theater, Goodman Theatre,
Playwrights Horizons,
Woolly Mammoth and other
theaters around the country.
She has been the recipient of
the Joseph Kesselring Prize,
The Charles MacArthur
Award and is a several times
winner of the Los Angeles
Drama Critics Circle Award.
She currently teaches acting
and playwriting at Stanford
University. Other plays
include: Claustrophilia,The
Ghoul of Amherst and Still
Warm.
playwright. She was
nominated as a finalist in the
drama category of the 1998
Pulitzer Prizes for her play
Freedomland. In addition to
Freedomland, she is the
author of The Beard of Avon
and Safe in Hell (all
commissioned and premiered
by South Coast Repertory),
The Psychic Life of Savages,
and other plays. Her work
has also been produced at
New York Theatre
Workshop, Seattle Repertory,
American Conservatory
Theater, Goodman Theatre,
Playwrights Horizons,
Woolly Mammoth and other
theaters around the country.
She has been the recipient of
the Joseph Kesselring Prize,
The Charles MacArthur
Award and is a several times
winner of the Los Angeles
Drama Critics Circle Award.
She currently teaches acting
and playwriting at Stanford
University. Other plays
include: Claustrophilia,The
Ghoul of Amherst and Still
Warm.
INTERMISSION . . . 15 minutes with . . . .
Amy Freed
Restoration Comedy previews at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego beginning March 3, opens March
and closes April 8.
The play had its world premiere in 2006 at Seattle Repertory under the direction of Sharon Ott, who
directed it again at California Shakespeare Festival. The Globe production is directed by John Rando and
features among its case Marco Barricelli, Caralyn Kozlowski and Peter Frechette.
Old Globe's 'Restoration Comedy' web pages and ticket purchasing.
We ran into Amy Freed at the opening of the Laguna Playhouse’s production of David Rambo’s ‘The Ice
Breaker,’ directed by Art Manke, an old friend of Ms. Freed, and the reason why the Bay Area native,
just into San Diego for rehearsals in San Diego, popped up in Orange County. At Intermission, we quickly
caught upon the latest since our days working together on readings and premieres of her ‘Freedomland,’
‘The Beard of Avon,’ and ‘Safe in Hell.' We then set a date for the following phone conversation.
INTERVIEWER: So, 'Restoration Comedy' sounds like a jolly show.
AMY FREED: [laugh] Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: I read a review of the Seattle production that said, in what sounded to be an admiring
tone, “it hasn’t a serious thought on its mind.” Is that fair?
AMY FREED: There was a fairly substantial revision following the premiere. One of the big changes
was an original ending that provided a more explicit summing up. The play’s a pretty good-time comedy,
but the issue, or the story, of the play is about a man and a woman who are completely incompatible in
their sexual and romantic natures. Now its ending – in contrast to way the original restoration plays
ended – postulates a sort of solution, or arrangement, that satisfies all the parties. The play now ends
with a pretty naked – not to make a vulgar pun – plea for sexual tolerance. After the role the gay
marriage issue played in the last couple political cycles, I see us as a nation going back to these sort of
Puritanical relationships. So, no the play isn't mindless.
INTERVIEWER: Is it getting a different interpretation with the new director?
AMY FREED: Oh sure. It’s a new play. It’s starting over again.
INTERVIEWER: But the text isn’t changing substantially since Cal Shakes.
AMY FREED: No, not too much. Before Cal Shakes I think I achieved what I wanted, which is that if the
play plays correctly, the sense that it wants to have at the end, which is a kind of a benediction or a
blessing on the diversity of the people’s ways of finding love, should feel satisfying. And that’s as much
of a message as the play wants authentically. So I think it should provoke that without hitting over the
head too hard with it. And should feel user-friendly, to audiences no matter what their view.
INTERVIEWER: People who are unfamiliar with the nuts and dolts of the Restoration period may be
surprised that it was the return of the monarchy that produced the era's liberated culture.
AMY FREED: Yeah. It was. It followed 40 years of Cromwell’s Puritanical regime.
INTERVIEWER: And the Restoration theater era, roughly the 50 years from 1660 to 1710, produced a
large group of seldom mentioned, but very successful, female playwrights, including England’s first
published female writer.
AMY FREED: Aphra Behn?
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. They produced 50 plays that were successful enough to be published under
their names at a time when many plays apparently weren't even given writer credit. Susannah Centlivre,
who worked near the end of the era, remained the most successful woman playwright in England until
Agatha Christie’s 'Mousetrap' more than 200 years later.
AMY FREED: It was a fantastic era for women. It was the best era ever. Including ours. That’s one of
the things I was very interested in. It was the first time that women had been on the stage in England.
Charles II had spent most of his exile in France, where women had been on the stage. His return
ushered in the first era of female actors, but also terrific actor personalities and acting couples. They
were really sexy, charming, witty and very charismatic. Suddenly you have men and women actually
occupying the same boudoir. In the Elizabethan all-male stage you really didn’t want to be terribly explicit
before a bunch of Christians. But now it was beautiful women with great clothes and cleavage and it
was very hot. Theater companies had old women, young women, ingénues -- all types of women
represented.
Amy Freed
Restoration Comedy previews at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego beginning March 3, opens March
and closes April 8.
The play had its world premiere in 2006 at Seattle Repertory under the direction of Sharon Ott, who
directed it again at California Shakespeare Festival. The Globe production is directed by John Rando and
features among its case Marco Barricelli, Caralyn Kozlowski and Peter Frechette.
Old Globe's 'Restoration Comedy' web pages and ticket purchasing.
We ran into Amy Freed at the opening of the Laguna Playhouse’s production of David Rambo’s ‘The Ice
Breaker,’ directed by Art Manke, an old friend of Ms. Freed, and the reason why the Bay Area native,
just into San Diego for rehearsals in San Diego, popped up in Orange County. At Intermission, we quickly
caught upon the latest since our days working together on readings and premieres of her ‘Freedomland,’
‘The Beard of Avon,’ and ‘Safe in Hell.' We then set a date for the following phone conversation.
INTERVIEWER: So, 'Restoration Comedy' sounds like a jolly show.
AMY FREED: [laugh] Yeah.
INTERVIEWER: I read a review of the Seattle production that said, in what sounded to be an admiring
tone, “it hasn’t a serious thought on its mind.” Is that fair?
AMY FREED: There was a fairly substantial revision following the premiere. One of the big changes
was an original ending that provided a more explicit summing up. The play’s a pretty good-time comedy,
but the issue, or the story, of the play is about a man and a woman who are completely incompatible in
their sexual and romantic natures. Now its ending – in contrast to way the original restoration plays
ended – postulates a sort of solution, or arrangement, that satisfies all the parties. The play now ends
with a pretty naked – not to make a vulgar pun – plea for sexual tolerance. After the role the gay
marriage issue played in the last couple political cycles, I see us as a nation going back to these sort of
Puritanical relationships. So, no the play isn't mindless.
INTERVIEWER: Is it getting a different interpretation with the new director?
AMY FREED: Oh sure. It’s a new play. It’s starting over again.
INTERVIEWER: But the text isn’t changing substantially since Cal Shakes.
AMY FREED: No, not too much. Before Cal Shakes I think I achieved what I wanted, which is that if the
play plays correctly, the sense that it wants to have at the end, which is a kind of a benediction or a
blessing on the diversity of the people’s ways of finding love, should feel satisfying. And that’s as much
of a message as the play wants authentically. So I think it should provoke that without hitting over the
head too hard with it. And should feel user-friendly, to audiences no matter what their view.
INTERVIEWER: People who are unfamiliar with the nuts and dolts of the Restoration period may be
surprised that it was the return of the monarchy that produced the era's liberated culture.
AMY FREED: Yeah. It was. It followed 40 years of Cromwell’s Puritanical regime.
INTERVIEWER: And the Restoration theater era, roughly the 50 years from 1660 to 1710, produced a
large group of seldom mentioned, but very successful, female playwrights, including England’s first
published female writer.
AMY FREED: Aphra Behn?
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. They produced 50 plays that were successful enough to be published under
their names at a time when many plays apparently weren't even given writer credit. Susannah Centlivre,
who worked near the end of the era, remained the most successful woman playwright in England until
Agatha Christie’s 'Mousetrap' more than 200 years later.
AMY FREED: It was a fantastic era for women. It was the best era ever. Including ours. That’s one of
the things I was very interested in. It was the first time that women had been on the stage in England.
Charles II had spent most of his exile in France, where women had been on the stage. His return
ushered in the first era of female actors, but also terrific actor personalities and acting couples. They
were really sexy, charming, witty and very charismatic. Suddenly you have men and women actually
occupying the same boudoir. In the Elizabethan all-male stage you really didn’t want to be terribly explicit
before a bunch of Christians. But now it was beautiful women with great clothes and cleavage and it
was very hot. Theater companies had old women, young women, ingénues -- all types of women
represented.
Caralyn Kozlowski, Marco Barricelli
in a scene from 'Restoration Comedy' at the Old Globe
in a scene from 'Restoration Comedy' at the Old Globe
Christa Scott-Reed and Marco
Barricelli
CRAIG SCHWARTZ
Barricelli
CRAIG SCHWARTZ
Peter Frechette and Marco
Barricelli
CRAIG SCHWARTZ
Barricelli
CRAIG SCHWARTZ