Liz Bradley won a Canberra Area Theatre Award last month for best contribution by a senior. That was for her onstage work in two American plays, Steel Magnolias and August:Osage County. Now, the 68-year-old is directing Tuesdays With Morrie, another American play that deals with a major contribution by a senior in a different field. But, she says, her CAT Award had nothing to do with it: she had already taken on the job before receiving it.
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Tuesdays With Morrie is based on Detroit sports journalist Mitch Alborn's 1997 memoir about how he resumed contact after many years with his favourite academic at Brandeis University, sociology professor Morrie Schwartz. After he graduated, Alborn got on with life but in 1995 he saw a television interview with Morrie, who was dying from the neurodegenerative disease myotrophic lateral sclerosis. He rekindled their friendship and flew every Tuesday to visit the old man in his study in Boston, learning more lessons about life.
The book has sold more than 15 million copies in more than 50 editions around the world. It was adapted into a telemovie in 1999 and Alborn co-wrote the play, which premiered in 2001. In this Queanbeyan City Council production, Mitch is played by Dave Evans and Morrie by Graham Roberts.
"I didn't realise it was a true story," Bradley says.
She had seen and enjoyed the play in a touring production several years ago. - "It was very touching." but only began researching the background when she agreed to direct this staging, though she hasn't yet read the book or seen the telemovie.
She discovered that Alborn had taken many of Schwartz's courses at university and after graduation worked as a jazz pianist in New York City.
"There was a tragedy in the family: a person he was very close to died, his uncle Mike. He wss upset about that because his uncle had encouraged him to do music."
He stopped playing the piano and changed careers, becoming a sports journalist. And then came the reunion with his old mentor.
"He went to visit him and struck up the friendship again and decided he would visit Morrie every Tuesday."
It was a life-changing experience for them both: Alborn started playing the piano again, married his girlfriend of seven years and became a happier person. And with the publication of the book, he was able to help cover Schwartz's medical bills and pay tribute to his mentor.
"They were very close. Morrie was quite the armchair philosopher," Bradley says.
"He says some very poignant things, like 'There's no 'point' in loving; love is the point. Why do you think people say they fall in love? Because falling is helpless'."
The play is a two-hander - "very intimate" - and Bradley is very happy with her two actors, both of whom she's worked with before.
"Graham Roberts is a gift to any director: he's funny and committed and works very hard ... and he's a lovely man. He's very good and very gifted."
She cast him as the butlers in her production several years ago for Free-Rain of The Importance of Being Earnest, well aware he was a scene-stealer who could make an impact a small role or two.
"He's got presence."
And Evans, she says, is "a very intelligent and beautiful man. I'm very fond of him and I think he can bring nuance to a role. He's a very reliable presence on stage."
Tuesdays With Morrie. By Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch Alborn, based on Alborn's book. Directed by Liz Bradley. Queanbeyan City Council. The Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, March 3-15. Tickets $47/$42, all matinees $39. Bookings: theq.net.au.
