One of the starriest shows of the season is Will Eno’s new dark comedy The Realistic Joneses. For the price of admission you’re getting Emmy winner Toni Collette, Tony winner Tracy Letts, Oscar winner Marisa Tomei and Golden Globe winner Michael C. Hall. (For real, all these stars in one show!) When BroadwayBox caught up the cast and creators, all we wanted to talk about was the play’s playful poster; so we asked: How does this poster prepare us for the play we are about to see?
Marisa Tomei (Pony Jones)
“It brings you right into bucolic suburbia. The mailbox, the white picket fence, that idealized vision of country life; but there’s a dead squirrel on top of it, and that’s spoiling the idealism of it.”
Will Eno (Playwright)
“I think the poster captures some of the humor and strangeness of the thing, and also the weirdness which exists in the ordinariness of American life. And that sky is in the background looks sort of like a happy blue sky but there’s something slightly foreboding about it.”
Michael C. Hall (John Jones)
“It lets people know that there is going to be dead wildlife and grass involved, and both of those things are accurate. I don't think it’s misleading but it doesn't give much away either, which is important with this play.”
Sam Gold (Director)
“Well it tells you that a squirrel might die during the course of this evening, and being on your toes for something like that will prepare you for the hilarity and depth of this play.”
Tracy Letts (Bob Jones)
“I think the play is bright and mysterious and funny and concerns life and death, and all of those things are reflected in that poster.”
Toni Collette (Jennifer Jones)
“So yes, the play will entail that [the poster] but also so much more.”
