Play examines the many ways we misunderstand

• Reprints

Austin Talley and Carrie Coon star in "The Girl in the Yellow Dress." | Photo by Isabella Coelho

Drama, mystery and love mixed with light humor are all ingredients in the Next Theatre Company’s U.S. premiere of Craig Higginson’s “The Girl in the Yellow Dress,” running through Feb. 26.

“The Girl in the Yellow Dress” is one of the most provocative plays I’ve worked on,” said director Joanie Schultz. “It’s a very specifically drawn piece and very distilled. It’s about the miscommunications, the lack of ability to understand and the assumptions we make about people of other genders, other races, other cultures, other classes.”

The play, with a cast of two, is set in contemporary Paris where Celia, a white Englishwoman from a well-off family teaches Pierre, a French-Congolese man, English lessons. A relationship develops that reveals dark truths from Celia’s past.

As story progresses, we recognize the many divisions still present in the modern, seemingly advanced world.

“The Girl in the Yellow Dress” is South African playwright Higginson’s second play. It premiered in Grahamstown, South Africa in 2010 and has since toured in both South Africa and the UK. It was the most talked about performance at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010.

“I just can’t believe this play hasn’t been done in this country,” said Schultz.

Austin Talley, originally, from South Carolina, is also performing his first show at Next. The complex psychology of the play intrigues him. “I’m still discovering new things and connections all the time as I learn my lines,” he said.

Talley describes his role as Pierre as one of the most challenging roles he has played, but he is able to identify with the character in some ways. Knowledge of French, however, is not something he shares with Pierre.

Learning languages

“I have to learn a new language and I have to learn the new dialect that I, Austin, as the actor, have never had the chance to work on,” said Talley. “So that’s really challenging. That’s one of the exciting things about being an actor is you get to step into (a new character) for however short the period is.”

Carrie Coon, who plays Celia, is also making her Next Theatre debut, and is enjoying the experience.

Although Coon is working on a different accent than Talley, she also enjoys the language aspect of her role. However, she is no stranger to working with British dialect on stage.

“I’m particularly attracted to the fact that Celia is an English teacher and the play is actually very cleverly divided by particular parts of speech,” Coon said. “So, I love the way he (Higginson) uses grammar and language and plays with grammar and language in that context, reinforcing how important language is, and the power of language to create us, and the challenges that language presents us in expressing ourselves. I just found that all very intriguing.”

Both actors say being in a two person cast is challenging. The energy between the two characters is critical for carrying the story and the pressure is on to stay interesting.

“There’s just something about you and that one person,” Talley said. “There’s just something magnetic about it. It’s just the energy you two of you are creating. This show really is all about the relationship between me and the other person.

All new

And because this is an American premiere the actors and director are working from scratch in creating their characters. “That’s always exciting because you feel like you’re getting the opportunity to create something new,” said Coon. “There certainly isn’t a huge legacy of actresses who have played this role. So there’s a kind of freedom about it. It’s really liberating to do a newer work or a premier. You get to be the person that creates that here.”

Schultz hopes the play inspires conversations about the characters and their problems.

“I think it’s a really worthwhile, really unique play,” she said. “I just hope that a lot of people are exposed to it and that they leave thinking about how they misunderstand, or how they might work in a situation with a person of a completely different gender, class, culture and race.”