The inspirational joy of Tuesdays with Morrie

One of South Africa’s most highly regarded theatre directors, Alan Swerdlow, is directing the stage adaptation of Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom at Theatre on the Square. The SA Jewish Report caught up with Swerdlow during rehearsals. 

How did you directing Tuesdays with Morrie come about? 

I have a relationship with the Theatre on the Square and [its owner-artistic director] Daphne Kuhn that goes back quite a number of decades. Daphne called and said she wanted to remount Tuesdays with Morrie and would I be interested in directing the play again. I said yes immediately. 

What attracted you to this piece of theatre? 

A two-hander is always satisfying because the cast and director can do a deeper dive into the characters and subject matter. We have the opportunity to do intensely subtle and detailed work in bringing the script to life, and use delicate brush strokes in delineating the characters and their relationship. That’s always very exciting within the creative process. And then the subject matter is so uplifting and the original book remains hugely popular. In the very unhappy world we live in at present, the message of Tuesdays is both comforting and inspiring. 

The book was so moving but didn’t seem to be a natural to translate into a theatrical script. How was it done? 

Mitch Albom recognised that he wasn’t equipped with the skills needed to adapt a piece of prose to the stage. He is, after all, a sports writer. He turned to playwright Jeffrey Hatcher to do the heavy lifting, and Hatcher did an excellent job in giving the narrative a theatricality and its own vitality, while condensing the multiple ideas that motivate the characters into an acceptable running time. There are very good reasons Hatcher is highly acclaimed as a playwright. Instead of being an extremely naturalistic presentation of a series of conversations, the characters often step out of a discussion to engage with and speak directly to the audience. In addition, there is a special magic woven onstage that ignites the audience’s imagination and welcomes them into the narrative. 

How has choosing a father and son in these roles been? Has it made any difference in the portrayal? 

I have directed both Michael and Jeremy Richard before, individually and together, and I know what they are capable of and just how remarkably skilled they are as performers. One of the things a director has to do when working with actors who aren’t familiar with each other is to build a sense of trust between them. With a father and son I didn’t have to do that, and so we could devote more of the rehearsal time to other explorations. That’s always a win, since rehearsal times in South Africa are very constrained. 

What for you were the take-home lessons in directing this specific play? 

That the truths it reveals are as valid today as when the play was first staged, and it hasn’t dated in any way. 

This is not the first time you have directed Tuesdays with Morrie. How does this one differ from the 2010 production? 

I approached it as if it were a brand new script that had just been handed to me. Attempting to recreate a 16-year-old production is to disrespect the material and probably one ends up with a museum piece – perfectly preserved but lifeless. I’m a very different person to the person I was in 2010, and I have experienced 16 years of learning new things, and understanding more. I hope I’ve brought that to this production. 

Have you ever known a person with ALS? How did that impact on your life and how you directed this? 

Not ALS as such, but two very close friends had, respectively, Parkinson’s and PSP, which lie within the spectrum of motor neuron diseases. One shut himself off from the world as he began to decline, and one fully embraced the world, living more vibrantly, as Morrie does. I learned so much from them, as Mitch does from Morrie, and I thought of them every day of rehearsal. In a way, this production is a very quiet, very personal tribute to their courage. 

What are the coincidences you’ve noticed in this production? 

There have been a number of happy coincidences, among them the 16 years since our first production of Morrie in Sandton, and its chime with the 16 years between Albom graduating from Brandeis University and reconnecting with his mentor, Morrie. 2010 was the first time I directed both Michael and Jeremy in the same play (but not this play) – 16 years again. Our first preview was on the yahrzeit of Morrie Schwartz’s death. There are a few more, but they are personal things between the cast and me. Suffice it to say that the whole experience has been a very happy one and we all can’t help feeling that we have someone looking out for us whose name may be Morrie. 

While this piece of theatre is about the process of dying, its impact is not that. What would you say its impact is? 

Its message is both simple and complex. It tells us to embrace life fully and to do so joyfully. And it delivers its message with so much humour and wit. 

With Mitch and Morrie both being Jewish, what is the significance of their religion in the play? And is there anything specifically Jewish about it? 

Where do I begin because there is so much? The play is steeped in Yiddishkeit, with allusions to Pirkei Avot and Maimonides and Hillel. I personally had great fun teaching Michael to pronounce the Yiddish he speaks during the play in a proper Peilisher accent instead of Litvak because the majority of Jews on the Lower East Side of Manhattan came originally from Poland, and that was where Morrie would have heard Mamaloshen. 

• Tuesdays with Morrie is at Theatre on the Square in Johannesburg until 22 November.