Catch as Catch Can playwright Mia Chung in conversation with the play’s dramaturg, Jonathan L. Green. Transcribed and edited by Patrick Zakem.

CATCHING UP

Jonathan L. Green: For years, our artistic staff has been talking about how unique the form of this play is. In the first scene, we're in some version of kitchen sink realism, which Steppenwolf is known for, but by the halfway point, the rules of the play have changed so many times that it leaves our head spinning. As you were writing, which came first, the story or the form? Because I think they absolutely relate to each other.

Mia Chung: Interestingly, this is my first play where the formal element—in this case the actors playing multiple characters—came before the story. Previously, I'd written a one-act play exploring this doubling device, but I didn't feel like that story in that short play was what I wanted to take to a full length. Later I found a new story, and I was trying to figure out how best to express it. And then I was like, “oh, actually, let’s take this off the shelf. This character doubling is perfect for this story.”

It was sort of like a DNA strand: the form and the story informed each other. In fact, I wrote elements of the story because I thought, “what about putting these two characters together for this kind of scene?” It ended up being a process of listening closely to the story and the characters but also listening very closely to the form.

JLG: I don't think it's a spoiler to say that, in a play where one or more characters break down emotionally or psychologically, we are faced with a play whose form and structure purposefully break down. The story and the form are very complimentary, and there’s a real arc to that breakdown.

MC: Yes. Because the point is that reality keeps getting broken. And by the end of each scene, you're like, “Oh, I figured it out!”. And then it changes again, right? And yet it still makes sense, hopefully.

JLG: This play is like a triathlon for actors, or maybe an ultramarathon. Each actor plays two very different characters, sometimes literally at the same time. Sometimes they portray one character physically, but another character vocally. Steppenwolf's actors are more than up for a challenge, but even so, we had plenty of moments of confusion in rehearsal as we were trying to parse out what exactly is happening with each of these six characters. And I'd argue that’s part of the point of the play. So, I must ask, what is your relationship to confusion as a theatrical device?

MC: Well, that's interesting. There is a certain type of writing, often for TV, where you want to make sure that everyone is on the same page at every moment, and that no one misses anything.

And then there's the opposite, right? And I'm closer to that end. I try to avoid exposition, because just explaining what the situation is, or who the characters are, to me, is sort of not the point. You're supposed to witness the characters and hopefully relate to them and understand them on some deeper level. Like, in online dating you get the profile, you know; it's like this surface stuff. It seems like you know the person. But actually meeting them and not thinking about the profile, you get to know them on a totally different level.

I tend to want to watch behavior. That's why I'm a theater writer. For some reason, in theater, witnessing human behavior right in front of you is completely captivating.

In grad school, there was an exercise where we were supposed to go eavesdrop on a conversation for an hour and just transcribe everything we heard. And once you do something like that, you just realize that human behavior is odd and surreal and incomplete. And yet it is often quite legible. We don't actually need everything to be spelled out.

Confusion is the water that this play swims in. Confusion is one way of putting it, as in “There's something off. I'm not quite getting everything.” But then with more and more information, you start to piece it together, and then suddenly you get it. That’s hopefully the journey during each of these scenes.

Building a form that embraces the surreal was the point. I wanted to build our vocabulary or tolerance for that.

JLG: Where did the title of this play come from?

MC: There's an idiom, "catch as catch can," that is probably regional; I think it's used more in the Northeast. It means “the best one can do with whatever is available.” It describes a situation in which people must improvise or do what they can with limited means in the moment. That, to me, felt very right for this play.

I have a large family: two sisters, two brothers, my parents. And we're always in some kind of crisis. At least one person; often more than one. You know, different levels of crisis: so-and-so's flight got canceled, or someone got a scary diagnosis of some sort. There's always something. And we're all trying to create this human net of some sort, whether emotional or physical or fiscal. That's how my family operates. I think of “catch as catch can” as an apt description of what it is to be in a family, especially a large family of complex individuals.