Critical Outtakes: Don Delillo

Q: In your play, "The Day Room," one of the character says about actors: "Dying is what we're all about. We show you how to hide from what you know." Is this idea -- that actors teach us how to deal with death -- something you are addressing with in your new play, "Love Lies Bleeding?"

A: In theater, the dead speak more than in other art forms. Ghosts. I think those earlier plays of mine have a strong kind of meaning for actors and playwrights, and in fact that line -- "in theater, the dead speak" -- was a line I wanted to use in this play, but it just didn't fit. I've been doing some thinking about "The Day Room," because there might be another production here. In a small theater with a small company. And there is some dialogue in the areas that surround the quote you just recited where that line or that idea might work well. Ghosts on battlement. Is this an ideal role for an actor -- to play a dead man? Is this what suits an actor perfectly? These questions get into the metaphysics of acting, and I'm anything but an expert on it, but it is just kind of an intuition on my part that it might be so.

**