Willy Loman, Blanche DuBois, Stanley Kowalski and combatants George and Martha find themselves thrown together in a New Orleans room. Toss in a Stage Manager lifted from “Our Town” and you have what promises to be a hilarious play created by Tim Ryder and Tim Sniffen and written by Sniffen, is having its world premiere at Writers Theatre.
Sniffen said the work was inspired by Second City producer Kelly Leonard who came up with the title, “Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf: A Parody.” “The moment he said it, I loved it and wanted a crack at writing it,” said Sniffen, who has worked with Second City since 2006.
“We invited Writers Theatre to come to one of the readings,” the playwright noted.
“The title was enough to get our attention,” said Artistic Director Michael Halberstam, who reported that he and frequent Writers Theatre director Stuart Carden “both laughed out loud at the title and then we laughed out loud at the read of the play.” Carden worked closely with Sniffen on the piece, followed by a reading at Writers’ Theatre.
“We all felt that the piece had taken a huge step forward and started to take it very seriously with an eye towards production,” said Halberstam, who is co-directing with Carden.
Halberstam wanted to add a comedy to this season’s lineup. “It’s lovely that it’s a world premiere so it’s a comedy that (audiences) won’t have seen before,” Halberstam explained. “And it’s dependent on their having some knowledge of these iconic productions — most of which we’ve done in the last few years or there have been major productions in town.”
Sniffen said their goal for the show was “to borrow from classic American theater. We can all start to imagine what might happen when you cram them all into one room.”
The playwright revealed that he has “a special place in his heart” for the character Willy Loman. “What we do to him in this show, I find very interesting,” Sniffen laughingly admitted.
Loman is played by Marc Grapey. “His version is perfect,” Sniffen said. “I love seeing Willy Loman brought to life.”
Grapey, who previously played the role in two workshop productions, reported that his character is recognizable as the Loman people know, “but he gives voice to Willy’s thoughts. A lot of the lines that I say in the play could be in ‘Death of a Salesman.’ They’re funny because they’re out of context.”
Grapey is also relishing, “The experience of getting to be in four classic American plays all at the same time.”
‘Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf: A Parody’
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through July 31, plus some additional matinees
Where: Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe
Tickets: $35-$70
Information: (847) 242-6000; www.writerstheatre.org
