Everything You Should Know About My New Play
An Interpretation of Anna is coming to a theater near you (if you live in NYC, that is).
You may have some questions about this new thing I wrote. Let’s see if I can answer them.
You wrote a new play?
Yes! I mean, “new” is a bit of a misnomer. I largely wrote this play back in 2020 and 2021 (it’s my King Lear!) but the writing group I used to work with on readings like this fell apart at around that time, and with the pandemic backlog on new theater, it took a while to find another group interested in putting on a reading. I applied for this reading series in 2022, found out I got in about a year ago and now it’s finally happening.
Yes, this is the amount of time it takes to do more or less anything in the American theater.
What’s it about?
An Interpretation of Anna is the story of Anna Freud, Sigmund Freud’s youngest daughter—and the only one of his children to follow in his footsteps and become a psychoanalyst as well. The play covers Anna and her family escaping Nazi-occupied Austria just before the outbreak of World War II and everything that led up to that moment.
It kicks off in 1925, when Anna met her future life partner, Dorothy Burlingham, and takes us through 13 years of her career, family, friendships, romance, grief and just trying to find herself as a person.
How’d you come up with all this?
I wrote another Substack post about this already! But the tale I’ve been telling people is I was inspired by the rapid increase in antisemitic violence in this country (and especially in New York City at the end of 2019) to dive into this period and see what I could find.
When I write historical pieces, I try to weave in as much research as I can; the more unbelievable any given statement is, the more likely it is I took it verbatim from a primary source. But then I pour in bits of myself to fill in the gaps, like my overachiever tendencies or complete bafflement at what one is supposed to say to someone who’s grieving. It’s all in there.
When and where’s the reading?
Sunday, June 16 (that’s Father’s Day) at 2pm. The livestream will also be available for a while after the performance if you can’t make it live. It’s at a little place called Spit & Vigor, which is the upstairs space at The Players’ Theatre in the Village.
Why should I come see it?
An Interpretation of Anna is a great choice for:
celebrating Pride Month—it’s very queer!
observing Father’s Day—watch and be fundamentally glad your father is not Sigmund Freud!
reflecting on the present political moment—it’s all about trying to live your life under impending fascism!
Why shouldn’t I come see it?
Not all theater is for everyone, and I know this piece can be challenging to watch. In the interest of full disclosure:
It’s about three hours long (yes there’s an intermission).
The theater is a third floor walkup.
There are a bucketload of content warnings on this play that I wouldn’t feel right not sharing here: The play contains discussions of antisemitic violence, suicide, domestic violence and animal death.
Where can I learn more about it?
For more information and to purchase tickets to either the live reading or the livestream, you can visit the theater’s website. Bafflingly for me, I’ve also been asked to go on a podcast to talk about the play, so I’ll send around a link to that once it’s live as well.
Is there a poster?
Yes, actually!
Any other questions I can answer for you?