The Wooster Group, New York's pioneering avant-garde theatre company, is bringing a reimagined tribute to their late co-founder Spalding Gray to London's Coronet theatre. The show, titled Nayatt School Redux, is based on Gray's 1978 piece Nayatt School, part of his Rhode Island trilogy. The original work marked Gray's first foray into autobiographical monologues, a precursor to his famous pieces such as Swimming to Cambodia.
Director Elizabeth LeCompte, who lived with Gray in the 1970s, explained that the revival is not a straightforward reproduction. 'When we go back to look at the old work, it's not like an artist can pull out her old painting from the warehouse and look at it,' she said. 'We only have very deteriorated, black-and-white material to work from.' The company instead treats Gray as a character in a play about a play he made.
Actors Kate Valk and Scott Shepherd, both long-time members of the Wooster Group, are performing the role Gray originally created. Valk, who joined the company in 1979, described her performance as a 'palimpsest across the top of Spalding'. Shepherd added that the process feels 'a bit seancey', noting that he is wearing some of Gray's original costumes. The production blends vaudeville-style radio skits with TS Eliot's play The Cocktail Party, combining high and low art in the company's signature collage style.
Gray, who died in 2004, was known for his monologue Interviewing the Audience, in which he would invite a stranger on stage and draw out their life stories. Shepherd recalled seeing that show on his first visit to the Performing Garage, the Wooster Group's New York home. 'It was one of the great early theatre experiences of my life,' he said. Valk, similarly inspired, gave up her apartment and moved into the theatre space after seeing Gray's early autobiographical works.
