Playwright Suzan-Lori Parks on making art about Covid
This week, Lilah speaks to Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, whose new show Plays for the Plague Year asks us to remember, process and grieve the pandemic. Suzan-Lori is best known for her 2001 play Topdog/Underdog, which was reprised on Broadway in the autumn. But her new show is different: she wrote one short play a day through the pandemic, and collected them into a lively, music-filled theatrical event. Suzan-Lori and Lilah talk through big questions: when is the right time to look back? What does ‘back to normal’ mean? What can and should we do with our memories? And how do you create complex art about difficult things?
--------------
Want to say hi? We love hearing from you. Email us at ftweekendpodcast@ft.com. We’re on Twitter @ftweekendpod, and Lilah is on Instagram and Twitter @lilahrap.
--------------
Links:
– Plays for the Plague Year by Suzan-Lori Parks is running at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater until April 30 https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2223/plays-for-the-plague-year2/
– Suzan-Lori’s Pulitzer-Prize winning play is Topdog/Underdog: https://bookshop.org/p/books/topdog-underdog-suzan-lori-parks/10486222?ean=9781559362016
– The FT interviewed Suzan-Lori and Cynthia Erivo on the alchemy of Aretha Franklin (2021): https://on.ft.com/3V120Jt
–Suzan-Lori is the playwright in residence at the Public, and does a regular virtual ‘watch me work’ session over zoom for people to get writing done together, and ask her questions: https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2122/watch-me-work/
--------------
Our US edition of the FTWeekend Festival is back! Join Jamie Lee Curtis, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alice Waters, your favourite FT writers, and more on May 20 in Washington, DC, and online. Register now and save $20 using the promo code weekendpodcast at ft.com/festival-us
Special offers for Weekend listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial are here: http://ft.com/weekendpodcast.
--------------
Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam Giovinco.
Clips in this episode courtesy of The Public Theater
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
