One Loving Couple Surviving 5,000 Years of Dramatic History
Performers
James Vincent Meredith and Roslyn Ruff on starring in Lincoln Center Theater’s epic mounting of The Skin of Our Teeth
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Things don’t look good for the human race. Multiple crises threaten its existence: climate change, war, scarcity of food and fuel, and mass displacement. How are we supposed to solve these problems when we can’t even resolve the conflicts tearing our own families apart?
“So many people have come and seen the show and said, ‘Wow, you guys really did some great rewrites!'” says Meredith, laughing. “And I’m like, ‘Not nearly as much as you might think.'” Director Lileana Blain-Cruz did enlist her longtime friend and frequent collaborator, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, to tinker with Wilder’s text with permission from the late dramatist’s estate. But aside from updating and diversifying some cultural references (a Longfellow poem has been replaced with one by Maya Angelou; the philosophy of Aristotle has been swapped for the wisdom of bell hooks), the play is true to Wilder’s creation.
Both actors are surprised by how deeply they’ve connected with a work that many assume is, in Meredith’s words, “an old chestnut”—traditional, comfortable and white by default. Before being cast by Blain-Cruz, neither had appeared in a Wilder play; Ruff had never even seen one. “Of course, I know who Thornton Wilder is, but I didn’t know his brand of theatre,” says Ruff. “I didn’t know that it would be right up my alley.” An Obie-winning, classically trained performer who’s appeared in a lot of Shakespeare as well as contemporary works by Suzan-Lori Parks, August Wilson and Jackie Sibblies Drury, Ruff took a chance on The Skin of Our Teeth “because I’ve collaborated with Lileana in the past. She is a dear friend; I trust her wholeheartedly.”
Meanwhile, Meredith’s only prior exposure to Wilder “was seeing Our Town multiple times… smelling that bacon,” referring to director , which featured a working kitchen.
As you might imagine, Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus have assorted marital woes over the centuries, but they’re bonded by their shared hope for the future. Acting together for the first time, Meredith and Ruff are more like newlyweds than old marrieds but, like the characters they play, they complement one another. “When a rehearsal’s going, I want to be as close to off-book as possible,” Meredith says. “I feel like I have to hurry up to get to that point. Ros came in and she would have the script—”
“All the time, James!” interrupts Ruff with a raucous laugh:
“But when the time came and she dropped the script, that was that,” says Meredith. “There’s no need to rush. When you get there, you will get there. That has kind of given me a chance to give myself grace.”
“I envy that in a lot of actors, being able to come in off-book and ready to play,” Ruff says. “James just gets this twinkle in his eye. From the moment he opened his mouth on the first day, sitting around the table—my god, he was Mr. Antrobus. Lileana is really a genius in terms of who she wants and who she gathers in the room and puts together, and she knew exactly what she was doing because it was like I fell in love.”
“If the audience doesn’t buy that these two love each other, that they are partners for life, then a lot of other stuff becomes harder to handle,” Meredith adds. The Skin of Our Teeth does ask theatregoers to process “a lot of other stuff,” from dinosaurs to floods to murder. But what’s survival without love? Ruff and Meredith’s palpable affection as Mr. and Mrs. Antrobus gives us hope for the human race.
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TDF MEMBERS: At press time, discount tickets were available for The Skin of Our Teeth. Go here to browse all theatre, dance and music offers.
Regina Robbins is a writer, director, native New Yorker and Jeopardy! champion. She has worked with several NYC-based theatre companies and is currently a Core Company Member with Everyday Inferno Theatre.
Top image: James Vincent Meredith and Roslyn Ruff in The Skin of Our Teeth at Lincoln Center Theater. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.
Regina Robbins is a writer, director, native New Yorker and Jeopardy! champion. She has worked with several NYC-based theatre companies and is currently a Core Company Member with Everyday Inferno Theatre.