Eddie Toll takes The Theatre Playbook inside The Wanderers, Anna Ziegler’s play in which fiction and reality collide, now on stage at the Marylebone Theatre.
In the UK premiere of US playwright Anna Ziegler’s The Wanderers, Eddie Toll stars alongside Anna Popplewell, Katerina Tannenbaum, Paksie Vernon and Alexander Forsyth in a story that asks if we can ever escape the stories we’ve inherited or whether we dissolve into the fictions of those who love us the most.
But despite weeks of rehearsals and numerous performances since the curtain raiser at Marylebone Theatre on October 17, Toll is pleased that the play is still surprising him every night – and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“That’s really the challenge with theatre,” he tells The Theatre Playbook. “It is different [each time], and that’s the nice thing and the scary thing and the difficult thing. But it’s nice to now have days free [between performances] and everyone seems to be feeling comfortable with where they are. It’s that stage where people are still finding new things.”
That idea is more apparent when Toll reveals he didn’t have too long to prepare after winning the role of Schmuli before he was thrown into “quite intense” rehearsals under director Igor Golyak.
“We were rehearsing six days a week, and then [there was] quite a brutal tech [rehearsal] because although it doesn’t ostensibly seem that way, the play is actually very tech heavy,” he explains. “It was very visual in terms of the way it was staged, and a lot of stuff changed because the lighting or the space was different and the way they’re using the stage. There was a lot of new stuff to accommodate and get used to. It was basically a whole week and then going straight into previews. It was very intense.”
In a writer’s studio, reality and fiction collide. A mysterious email from a Hollywood star. A marriage tested. A story within a story. But who is really writing whom?
Forsyth is Abe, a prizewinning novelist attempting to capture his parents’ untold history whilst his own life unravels. When famous actress Julia Cheever (Popplewell) begins writing to him, their electric correspondence blurs the boundaries between imagination and betrayal.
As Abe’s parents, Schmuli (Toll) and Esther (Tannenbaum) materialise from his pages – young, passionate, caught between tradition and desire – questions arise over whether they are memories or inventions? And whose hand truly holds the pen?
“It follows these two couples in different time spaces,” Toll explains. “It’s set in the Hasidic Jewish community in New York so it’s very interesting, because it’s so unique and divorced to most people’s experiences. It very much is a community that’s, in many ways, cut off, but also it’s very interesting to see how there are certain themes that are just unique to the human experience.
“Although there are certain things that are very specific to this story, in this community, pretty much anything we take for granted in our lives is actually very much social conditioning anyway. It’s quite interesting to explore a character through that lens, and to actually consider how much of what we take for granted in our lives is what we’ve accepted, what has been passed down to us socially, and how much of that is what we want, and how much that is useful. Exploring all that was very interesting and fascinating and fun.”
Another key theme, which takes its cue from the title of the play, is the sense of searching for something else, for meaning or something better.
“He’s very much in this religious community, but he can’t find what he’s seeking,” the actor says of his character. “Similarly with Esther, she wants to break free. But then even in that freedom, she doesn’t find what she’s looking for. Then you have Abe and all the other characters, they’re all seeking for something outside of their lives, and it always seems to be this kind of mirage. That seems to be the common theme with all of these characters. They’re all looking for something else outside of them, even though it would appear they’ve got everything you would think anyone would want. But somehow they’re not quite fulfilled, and they’re all seeking something else.”
Working with director Golyak, the script was used as a starting point to bounce ideas around and explore visual motifs and ways to tell the story. The process is ongoing even now as performances continue.
“It just keeps changing because I don’t think you can do something 50 times with the same thoughts, the same prep, the same messaging,” Toll says. “There are new realisations or new bits every time, and it has to change for you to be able to keep it alive and keep it interesting. Otherwise, especially with the nature of the play, I don’t think we can really sit back on our heels. There’s enough in the text and in the writing to keep finding new things. It’s lovely to explore something that has that kind of depth in it.”
As The Wanderers heads towards the end of its run, Toll praises the “very talented cast” that take audiences on a “lovely journey” during each performance. “Every experience is unique, and especially with theatre, for good or bad, every show is always different. It’s been a great experience.”
He adds: “It’s a story that you’re not getting told every day. It’s a really interesting and it’s funny in places, it’s heart-wrenching in places. It’s also quite deep and philosophical, but not in a navel-gazing way either. There’s a lot you can take from it. There’s a level of depth and thought that is quite unique.”
The Wanderers is at Marylebone Theatre until November 29. Tickets here.
Top image: The Wanderers (L-R) Eddie Toll as ‘Schmuli’ & Katerina Tannenbaum as ‘Esther’ – credit Mark Senior (image supplied)