A play, called Beyond Words, will have its premiere in Cambridge, MA, in the middle of March. It is roughly based on the book, “Alex & Me”—thus it is a light fictionalization of my time with Alex. Many people have asked how I feel about the prospect of seeing myself and a person playing Alex on stage. It is a wee bit weird—but I’ve OK’ed the version that will be produced; I was also present for a ‘read through’ (no props, no costumes, no stage sets) in New York City two years ago—and the simple answer is that it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t completely trusted the playwright, Laura Censabella.
Alex & Me—New York Times best-seller
A bit of background…after the trauma of Alex’s death and the unrelenting media blitz, I immediately—and without fully thinking about what I was doing—agreed to begin working on a manuscript about a relationship I was only beginning to understand. By the time “Alex & Me” was completed, I was pretty much wrung out. Of course, it was absolutely thrilling to have a New York Times best-seller, but the emotional toll of the book tour and the need to figure out how to keep the lab going was almost more than I could handle.
In the ensuing years, I was approached several times by various people wanting permission to write a screenplay, and I couldn’t imagine acquiescing: I learned enough about the process to understand that no matter what agreements were signed, I would have little control over the final product, and that the goal was to make money for those who were funding the project—not to preserve Alex’s and my legacy or to remain true to our story. [Absolutely no offense intended to anyone involved…that’s just the way the world works.]
A Pitch For A Play
A number of years later, however, I was approached by Laura Censabella, who wanted to write a play—for the first time, I was intrigued. As a high school student in Queens, I grew up spending many weekends traveling to Manhattan to watch shows on Broadway—for example, amazing productions like Richard Burton’s Hamlet. I completely fell in love with theater; I knew how a live performance allows for stretches of imagination that can accomplish things impossible on screen.
Still, I was a bit hesitant—could this really work? Laura understood my concerns and invited me to watch her play Paradise—there she deftly wove together threads of science and diverse cultures. Her characters navigated very different sets of circumstances than mine, but they did so in ways in which their humanity was paramount, even when they made what the viewer might think were poor choices.
The play made me realize that she was the one person whom I could trust to portray my own chaotic life and the complicated, nuanced relationship I had with Alex. I was also thrilled with her plan that a person would play Alex. Although I had always been exceeding careful never to think of him nor ever to treat him as a “feathered human,” I realized that by having a human assume his persona, one might thereby have a glimmer of how Alex might have responded had he had the ability to fully express himself in the ways that humans do.
The Collaboration
Laura and I spent a lot of time discussing how to proceed. I had to accept that, on occasion, certain aspects of my life had to be exaggerated to provide a dramatic arc (for example, although I have had far more than my share of “me, too” experiences, I was never physically accosted as occurs in a scene in the play). I also knew that a 2-hour play could only touch on the highlights of Alex’s and my years together, and Laura and I agreed that we would make it absolutely clear that the play was only ‘based on’ “Alex & Me”: Viewers had to understand that that the play would not—and could not—be a literal depiction of my life with Alex, but that it would be as honest a representation as possible AND that the science parts would be absolutely correct.
Laura and I also completely agreed that Alex had to be a central character and that not only his intelligence but also his personality showed through….what, at least in humans, would be considered a kind of wit and even his occasional ‘snarkiness’ had to be clearly depicted. When I saw the first version of the play that Laura was willing to share, I was thrilled…Alex came completely alive! I also must note that I wish that I had actually said some of the lines used by my character—Laura expressed my emotions and meaning better than I actually did in real life!
So, yes, it is a kind of ‘meta’ experience to see actors depict close approximations of oneself and of the important people in one’s life…and, for example, to see a particular character represent a distillation of many folks rather than a specific individual…but I think the end product is worth any discomfort I might experience.
As I write in the program notes: “In sum, my hope is that the play enables viewers to value and understand Alex’s legacy fully and to recognize the importance of the work we did together: to appreciate the intelligence of the other beings with whom we share the planet, to conserve endangered species like Grey parrots, to recognize that the techniques that enabled me to teach him can be adapted for use with humans with communicative disabilities, to understand that misogyny still needs to be addressed, and most of all, to be open to the possibility that paradigm shifts and what might initially seem like outrageous ideas can further our knowledge in amazing ways.”
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