The Need to Connect -- Brendan George on His Heartfelt & Delightful 'Eulogy for Roman'

"A Eulogy for Roman" is a delightful one-man show that cleverly, and unexpectedly, reels you into Roman's best friend Milo's grief process. It's so real that you might actually find yourself wondering how Milo is doing days after the performance. You might even put your own chair away after Milo mentions that he is charged with that task at the end of the service. You feel for this broken-hearted kid. You never realize he's leading you on an emotional journey of your own, but he is.

Conceived by Peter Charney and written by actor/playwright Brendan George, "Roman" was first performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2022. It later enjoyed a successful Off-Broadway run at 59E59 Theaters that garnered quite favorable reviews, including one from the NY Times. Its latest incarnation is being performed through April 6 by three different actors in four non-theater venues.

It's a beautiful piece with heart that reminds us of the importance of connection. Initially it's hard to figure it out; at the performance I saw an older woman walked out about 30 minutes into the show proclaiming, "This is bizarre" while loudly clomping her way out the door. Pity. She missed a lovely piece of theater. If you go, (and you should), enjoy the journey. And bring a pen, you might thank me for it later.

Recently EDGE had the chance to chat with Brendan George about "Eulogy for Roman," his connection to the character and the show's Life Points List – something else you might think about after this experience.

EDGE: I spent the first 10 minutes or so trying to figure out what was going on in your show. How do you describe it?

Brendan George: We got nominated for a Drama Desk Award for unique theatrical experience. I think audiences are truly a little confused by the genre of the piece. You get some who are expecting a traditional play and they're taken off guard. Then some who think it's going to be a bit more theatrical. I guess it's a play with improvised elements and you will be surprised. I think the success of it is that it's all immediate and unique to this audience. It's all happening in the moment.

EDGE: At one point I was convinced you should tell people a little bit about what to expect. But by the end, I saw the entire experience unfolded organically and it was perfect.

Brendan George: It builds. It feels like it's all immediate and unique, but the journey, the arc, it's all carefully deployed. I don't want to give away too much.

EDGE: You've had a couple of very successful runs not too long ago. Why are you doing this show again?

Brendan George: I got so much out of the process of doing the show, but the one thing I had yet to do was watch it. I had always been performing it. I loved this show so much and, in a sense, I was really curious to witness it. And from a creative standpoint I felt like I reached the limit of where my own imagination and evolution could take the piece and it was just kind of a let your darlings go, let your birds fly from the nest and see what happens. I'm really thrilled that we've done it. I got to sit in on rehearsals and the casting process. We've got three unique actors and it's been so rewarding to see them play with this text and interpret it and make it their own.

EDGE: Why are you doing it in several different venues?

Brendan George: I have to shout out the producer and director of this rendition, Ron Lasko. We first worked together in 2019 on a site-specific, immersive solo show called "Bleach." It was in a basement in Bushwick with an audience of 14 people at a time. As an actor it was so radical from anything I had done before. It was super challenging, but super exciting and I became hooked after that. When Peter Charney and I were putting the show together we didn't have aspirations at that point of even Edinburgh Fringe, let alone a quite fancy off-Broadway run at 59E59 Theaters. We didn't dare dream that big. The New York Times coming and us getting extended was fantastic. But I think from a sense of practicality, we just wanted something that was a $0 show where the story itself and the power of the imagination unites the audience in a really compelling 75 minutes of theater.

EDGE: It works. I never got the feeling I was in a theater.

Brendan George: It was actually designed originally to be done in a church basement, a bar or community center, wherever this character realistically would have gotten permission to host a slap dash eulogy. I love this idea of these four venues happening simultaneously because they add that texture of immediacy and site specificity to the show. But it's also this kind of meta-narrative to the audience to remember that this story is happening everywhere and all the time. There could be multiple Milos out there going through this journey and multiple audiences out there experiencing this really immediate and intimate event.

EDGE: There seems to be quite a bit of improv going on. Is it the same in every show?

Brendan George: The short answer is no. Every show is very different. The script is pretty funny to look at because it's a bit of a mess. There's scripted text that's set and then there's sections that are kind of bracketed with suggested text but denote to the actor that this is a bit looser and you can invite more participation in those moments. The tasks that are completed in the show are the same tasks, but how they get completed oftentimes look very different.

Without giving it away, each piece in the show is different depending upon who volunteers. At one point we ask if there's a celebrity in the audience. More than likely there will not be a celebrity in the traditional sense in our audience. But now that we've had our big, fancy run you never know. I was told that Patti LuPone almost came to the show. That would've been a moment! I know people who've come to see it multiple times because they want to see it reiterate.

EDGE: Are you Milo?

Brendan George: I am and I'm not. There are definitely parts of me in this character and all throughout the show. The best way I can describe it is I feel like Milo is a smoothie made from all the ingredients of my own life. He's something kind of distinct from me, but a lot of the stories are either somewhat fictional accounts or amalgamated versions of real experiences I've had. I actually grew up in Connecticut, not Pennsylvania, and it was more of a suburban environment than the rural Pennsylvania Milo lived in. But a lot of the experiences and stories that he shares about isolation, feeling othered, grappling with his own sorrow and grief and social challenges are real experiences I've had. Some of the very specific details are fully drawn from my own experience. There was a Dairy Queen in my hometown where the cool kids hung out. There are anchoring details like this that I peppered throughout.

EDGE: Milo was an outlier/outcast. Did you experience that growing up?

Brendan George: I really experienced that otherness through middle school, a little bit in elementary school, but middle school were the dark ages for me. In high school I was kind of able to have a 180 and find my footing again, find relationships I could lean on. But a lot of this show is actually drawn from that four-year period from fifth through eighth grade where I truly had no friends. It feels terrible to say, but the good news is we can take comfort that I am now socially okay.

It's kind of the period of my life that I'll always still be in relationship to, because it's a period of my life where I was developing these beliefs about myself that just become ingrained. I believed in that state of not having friends that I was not somebody who was entitled to friendship in my life. I didn't think that connection and bonding with peers would happen in my life. Some people have friends and some people just don't.

EDGE: Like Roman?

Brendan George: Yeah, you have this character who's still in that place and wants so badly to connect and have real, meaningful relationships and friendships in his life. Roman didn't believe in the concept of a stranger. Everybody was his friend. There were just some people he hadn't met yet. It's almost how I see the world. Going from a place where you don't necessarily have a friendship or a group means that everyone you see could be your friend. Your next best friend could be waiting around the corner. There's this beautiful sense of optimism which is kind of the magic of the show as everybody gets together in that way.

EDGE: Was the Life Points List based on your own bucket list?

Brendan: I did have a bucket list with a friend of mine from high school, Erin. We're still friends. When I was developing the show I called her and asked if she still had our bucket list. I didn't even remember what was on it, but she sent me the funniest pic of our list, complete with pink highlighter everywhere. Some of the things were crazy, but some of the things we had actually done. It was the original inspiration for what items went on the list for the show. I coined the term Life Points List and used real tasks from my bucket list and added a bunch of things that were more in the character of Milo and not maybe so much Brendan.

EDGE: How about the little cheerleader moves done when Milo says, "Life Points List PLUS PLUS PLUS?"

Brendan: I've got to give (actor) Richard Diamond credit for that. When I did it, I would sort of move my hands really fast. Richard came up with his own big motions, he's got the cheerleader choreo. He did a great job.

EDGE: Will this production be the end for "Roman"?

Brendan: I hope it will not. I think my final goal for the show is to have it licensed and produced and published because I think the story is so uplifting and accessible. Even when I did it in Scotland for the first time, and none of that was on my radar, I remember having young actors, people who were in high school, coming to see the show and asking, "Can I have this script? I want to do this my senior year at my high school. I want to bring this home."

I actually think the show is a really great project for an ambitious young artist to take on. It's given me so much as a performer. I think it would be great for young performers to give it their all. The story of Roman in its specificity is universal, and especially, a pretty American tale. You've got the Americana baked into this Pennsylvania story. I kind of have this dream of hearing about a high school production happening in Iowa and getting on a train or plane to go see it. I hope that Roman will live on for many, many productions and lives that meet and interact with him along their way.

"A Eulogy for Roman" runs through Apr 6 on the following schedule:
Thursdays @ 8:30pm at The Center (208 W 13th Street, Room #310, New York NY 10011)
Fridays @ 7:30pm at Old First Reformed Church (729 Carroll Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn NY 11215)
Saturdays @ 7:30 at Studio Exhibit (62 Orchard Street, 2nd floor, New York NY 10002)
Sundays @ 5:30pm at Westbeth Community Room (55 Bethune Street, New York NY 10014)
Tickets are $30 at www.SpinCycleNYC.com

For more information, follow this link.