Gustav re-appears in the lives of his ex-wife Tekla and her new
husband, Adolf, determined to destroy the man who has taken his place. Strindberg sought
to cut drama down to its essence, to the single ``kernel'' that is at the heart of the
traditional five-act play, to remove the unnecessary chaff that surrounds it. Indeed,
``Creditors'' is stripped to the action -- the destruction of Adolf. Creative Artists
Laboratory
This is Pacino's Broadway debut and his first performance for paying
customers.
He was in a class being taught by his longtime friend Charlie Laughton on
this play. Laughten got a friend of his to let them perform it his "Cafe Cino".
"As Pacino spoke his first line, the audience broke up - not because
they were laughing at him, but because the line itself was funny. Unfortunately this fact
had escaped Pacino's attention. Stumbling outside into an alley, he burst out crying.
Laughton followed and spun him around, jolting him back to his senses. 'Al, you've got to
play it twice more tonight, he told him,' then twelve more times after that.' It dawned on
Pacino that he knew nothing about Saroyan or the play and that he'd better learn
fast." Life on
the Wire by Andrew Yule
"Al
was surrounded by classical actors, and he got scared. He came to me and said he couldn't
do it. So we read it through, and I got him to read it naturally, in his own speech, and
we discussed the meaning of each passage. By the time the company reached the end of
rehearsals he was bigger and better than any of them because he had perceived what was
going on. That was the first real glimpse I had of his talent. 'It's the role
that matters' was the gospel I preached. I remember one member of the cast describing Al's
performance in the play as momentous, and Al's stunned, disbelieving expression when he
heard it." Charles Laughton, who directed the play (from "Al Pacino: A life on the
Wire" by Andrew Yule)
"I didn't know anything about the Strindberg world. I felt I
had the license to speak and that I was Everyman and timeless and universal. I felt the
great sense of saying, 'I can talk I can speak, I've got something to say.
It freed me up, made me feel good. I knew that I would do nothing else and that it didn't
matter anymore whether I became successful or got a job. I had enough to sustain me. Al
Pacino (from "Al
Pacino: A life on the Wire" by Andrew Yule)
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