Father and Son Hardware Michigan No Job Too Big
Father and Son Return to the Stage, Together. Again. No Regrets.
Reed and Ephraim Birney are in the Berkshires, reprising their roles in "Chester Bailey." They discuss what it's like to play off — and fight — each other.
In his Instagram profile, Ephraim Birney describes himself as "the black sheep out of work actor in a family of black sheep working actors." Born and raised in New York, the 24-twelvemonth-old actor is the elder kid of Reed Birney (a Tony winner in 2016 for his operation in "The Humans") and Constance Shulman ("Doug," "Orange Is the New Blackness"). His little sister, Gus Birney, has appeared in the TV series "The Mist" and "Dickinson." Ephraim Birney has booked jobs, also — "Gotham," "The Americans" — but not quite as many.
"The weird affair isn't that I'm an player," he said during a recent video call. "The weird affair is that I'chiliad not working as an actor."
But Ephraim Birney, who was seated side by side to his father in the kitchen of their summer abode in the Catskills, is working now. On Fri, the father-son actors brainstorm performances indoors (indoors!) of "Chester Bailey," Joseph Dougherty'south heart-raking ii-hander at Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass. (The show, running through July 3, is existence advertised as this summertime'southward showtime indoor theater event in the Berkshires approved by the Actors' Equity Association.) Ephraim Birney stars as the title grapheme, a Navy Yard worker who suffers a devastating injury in 1940s Brooklyn, and his male parent plays the doctor assigned to his care. The drama explores illusion, reality and the comfort imagination can provide.
"As deplorable as this play is, and it is securely lamentable," Reed Birney, 66, said, "at that place's something so beautiful nearly how these two men have affected each other."
The Birneys get-go took on these roles ii years agone, for the Contemporary American Theater Festival in West Virginia. Later a long pandemic-prompted pause, spent generally swimming and gardening at their upstate house, they have returned to them, with the aforementioned director, Ron Lagomarsino. During our hourlong call, the Birneys spoke about the vagaries of the business, learning to care for each other as colleagues and getting back to theater, together. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
For "Chester Bailey," were you lot recruited as father and son?
EPHRAIM BIRNEY No, information technology was a affair that I had auditioned for, on my own.
REED BIRNEY I knew Ron Lagomarsino, the director, because I'd done "Hay Fever" with him in 1982 at the Kenyon Festival Theater. Nosotros'd stayed friends. So I wrote Ron, and I said, "My boy'due south coming in for your evidence." Of a sudden I got an offer. I was not really interested in doing a play again for a while. Only then I idea, if I say no to working with Ephraim, I will regret it for the residue of my life.
EPHRAIM And you lot've regretted it ever since.
When you started rehearsing the play in 2019, what was it like to run across each other as co-stars?
REED We were both nervous about that. But we both were really impressed at how very chop-chop we became colleagues.
EPHRAIM It's similar your second home, a rehearsal room. It's what you've e'er said. And it feels very, very absurd that I go to play in that same room.
REED One of the terminal days we were in Westward Virginia, we were driving back from the theater. And he said to me, "Thank you for treating me as an equal." He's so beautiful in the play. It's really something to encounter. Information technology's a beautiful, beautiful functioning, actually uncomplicated and heartbreaking.
Reed, when did you know you wanted to be an actor?
REED I was virtually 5. I remember proverb to a group of grown-ups that I wanted to be an thespian. They all laughed nervously and exchanged looks like, oh dear, oh dear. There might take been a week where I wanted to exist a fireman. But the rest of the time, information technology was an actor.
EPHRAIM I'thousand still looking forward to being a fireman.
When yous knew that Ephraim wanted to exist an player, did y'all e'er endeavour to talk him out of it?
REED Non e'er. Considering everybody had tried to do that to me. Anybody who wants to do it should try it. They'll figure it out on their ain. If in that location comes a indicate where they say, "Oh, this isn't for me," I don't think at that place'due south whatever shame in leaving. But I as well know it's 1 of the greatest professions in the world. Ephraim and Gus, they were ever aware of the times when you don't work or you lot lose a part or you go a bad review. Certainly, they saw that stuff. But I think they also saw how fantastic the community is.
EPHRAIM When I started expressing interest in acting, yous said, "Well, don't you meet how miserable I am?" And I said, "But I see that you're however doing it, despite being and so miserable."
Epitome
Did you try to requite Ephraim whatever advice?
REED Even now, I haven't gotten that television series that suddenly takes me over the brink. And so information technology's an ongoing affair. If my career is an example, information technology's a long ride. You accept to keep your heart on the prize.
EPHRAIM I remember getting [an audition] for that Hugh Jackman picture show with the robots, "Existent Steel." I remember coming to you, and I was similar, "I don't remember there's a globe where I become this. How do I fifty-fifty endeavour to try?" And I remember yous saying, "Because that'southward the task, and 1 of those times, it'll exist your turn.
Were there parts your dad played that actually stood out for you?
REED Most of the plays I did when they were fiddling, they couldn't come meet. They never saw "Blasted" [a famously upsetting play by the English playwright Sarah Kane that involves nudity, rape and cannibalism]. Connie saw it and told them all about it. When I came abode from the theater, our daughter said, "Practise nosotros run into your heinie in that play?"
EPHRAIM I was similar, "I desire to eat a infant in a play!"
What is information technology like going dorsum to "Chester Bailey"?
REED One time we were finally dorsum, I was like, "Oh, this feels incredibly familiar." But I also am very aware that considering the globe has changed so much, the resonance of the play has inverse, too, and the need for imagination and the demand for the arts and the need for human contact, those things are much more profound in the production than they were before.
"Chester Bailey" involves a physical altercation. What's that similar to perform?
EPHRAIM That's just a regular Tuesday for united states of america!
REED I don't think Ephraim and I accept e'er had a fight. Then information technology's really interesting to suddenly be in the center of one. That'southward one of the things that acting does — it takes you lot places you don't usually get. He's pretty good at information technology, too. I wouldn't want to get in a fight with him.
What do Connie and Gus think of the play?
EPHRAIM They beloved it. They actually practice. Mom is not someone who volition pretend to like something.
REED Yeah, Mom is a tough critic. And Gus couldn't stop crying. In that location were a lot of tears.
Is there a play the whole family could do together?
REED People weirdly say, "You guys should do 'Who's Agape of Virginia Woolf?'" That would be incredibly weird. That'due south kind of gross.
EPHRAIM People forget what that play'due south near. We could do a fun version of "Long Day'southward Journeying Into Night." But I don't remember anyone wants to see us to do that.
REED I don't think the play has been written, honestly.
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