Independent Arts News Reporting 
Pictured Above: Elizabeth Marvel & Elizabeth Yeoman. Photo Credit: Michael Avedon Photography.
Elizabeth Marvel Anchors Futuristic Legal Drama at La MaMa
By: Keith Loria
Award-winning journalist Keith Loria interviews Elizabeth Marvel in her latest role on stage as she stars in “And Then We Were No More,” a searing new play by Tim Blake Nelson.
Elizabeth Marvel, star of stage, screen and TV, takes center stage in And Then We Were No More, a searing new play by Tim Blake Nelson at La MaMa. Directed by Mark Wing-Davey, the limited run started previews on September 19 and opens officially on Sept. 28.
Known for her powerhouse turns in King Lear, Other Desert Cities and TV favorites like House of Cards and Homeland, Marvel leads a formidable ensemble in a story set in a chillingly near future. As a lawyer confronting a justice system stripped of compassion, she anchors Nelson’s provocative exploration of morality, mercy and the machinery of power.
“I am a friend and fan of Tim Blake Nelson and a friend and fan of Mark Wing-Davey, so that’s what first drew me to this, being in a creative space with both of them,” Marvel said. “The play itself is a real challenge to an actor because the language is very complicated. To take on difficult language is always a wonderful task as an actor; it gives you the chance to take in complicated concepts and language and make them very easy verbally and mentally to make it seem second nature.”
Pictured Above: Elizabeth Marvel. Photo Credit: Michael Avedon Photography.
Marvel is no stranger to doing “heavy lifting” in her roles, whether it was bringing raw vulnerability to House of Cards’ Heather Dunbar, navigating the psychological toll of Homeland’s President Elizabeth Keane or embodying Shakespearean heroines on stage.
“It’s a funny thing, it’s like the darker the woods, the lighter one’s spirit is and that’s an interesting thing as an artist,” Marvel said. “When you’re making very difficult, dark work, it’s like a depository for all of that. You go into work and put all of that into it and when you walk away, you feel so light.”
She added that the amount of joking and joie de vivre around the rehearsal process has been hilarious and the cast has had a lot of fun telling this dark, difficult story.
As the lawyer in the play, Marvel noted her character is just trying to remind everyone about the collective responsibility of the species to care for one another. Calling herself “a futurist,” Marvel agrees with that fight.
“It’s very easy for me to identify with this woman because we as a species right now are at the dawn of the next industrial revolution with AI and robotics being on the horizon,” Marvel said. “This ‘dystopian future’ we are talking about in this play is kind of actually our present. It’s not that far. We’re sort of already in it and we just don’t realize we’re there yet.”
Since signing on, Marvel has enjoyed collaborating with Nelson on the show, and debated the ending of the show up until close to opening night.
“I’m one of those actors who never stop questioning,” she said. “I come in with a million questions and keep asking everything until the team goes away. Eventually, the writer and director go away and it’s just us lunatics running the asylum. I rigorously interrogate a play while I can, and Tim has been such a wonderful teammate that way. A lot of playwrights wouldn’t.”
La MaMa has a reputation for telling thought-provoking stories and Marvel feels And Then We Were No More will excite its audience as its posing urgent questions to the community.
“Just walking in La MaMa, the legacy of that theater, it’s really moving to me,” she said. “It’s incredible to be a current link in the chain of that legacy of that space and the work that has been made there for decades. Today, it’s a very hard climate to be rigorously posing questions about the human experience. That’s something else that’s exciting about this play; it’s not just one point of view, it’s a myriad of voices and the audience can align with many different characters.”
Pictured Above: The cast of “And Then We Were No More.” Photo Credit: Michael Avedon Photography.
The play also stars Scott Shepherd (Ulysses, Bridge of Spies), Jennifer Mogbock (Half-God of Rainfall; Merry Wives), Henry Stram (Titanic, The Elephant Man), Elizabeth Yeoman (Airtime; The Children’s Hour), William Appiah (Fences; Hamlet), E.J. An (A Dream of Red Pavilions; Clubhouse), Kasey Connolly (Four Women Entering Paradise; FBI) and Craig Wesley Divino (London Assurance; Round Table).
Marvel feels fortunate that she’s been able to move between all three mediums (TV, film and the stage) her entire career. Up next for Marvel is a two-week run of a show she co-created with Lee Sunday Evans called The Ford/Hill Project, which melds the trial testimonies of Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford. The performance will be in January during the Under the Radar festival, though exact dates and a theater are still to be announced.
“I’ve logged the 10,000 hours and the thing I enjoy most now is being asked to do things I don’t know how to do,” she said. “I like when things present themselves that I haven’t done before. I love when I have no idea how I’m going to do something. When I have the luxury of choosing, which happens a fair amount, it’s about the collaborators and the phenomena of being asked to do what I don’t know what to do.”
And Then We Were No More began previews Sept. 19. Tickets start at $49 and are available at: www.lamama.org.
