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Two Actors Take On 'Two' At None Too Fragile In Akron

David Peacock and Derdriu Ring in Jim Cartwright's "Two" [Brian Armour]
David Peacock and Derdriu Ring in Jim Cartwright's "Two"

The new play onstage at None Too Fragile Theatre in Akron has a simple enough title - "Two."  

It reflects the fact that there are only two actors in the production.  

But what it doesn't reflect is just how difficult the play is for the two actors, in this case, Derdriu Ring and David Peacock.

Derdriu Ring and David Peacock in "Two" at None Too Fragile Theatre [photo: Brian Armour]

Ring and Peacock play seven different characters each in the play, which is set in a British pub.  The two characters at the heart of the play are the estranged husband and wife who own the bar.

"Emotionally it's a very difficult place to go to," Ring said. "This play has this incredibly dark, beautiful, heartbreaking secret that requires of me to go to a place that's very deeply uncomfortable for me.  Those roles I find draining, in a good way."

As Peacock prepared to take on his seven characters for the production of "Two" he traveled to an unlikely place: the zoo.

"[I] looked at animals and worked out which character is that animal or which animal is that character," Peacock said.

David Peacock

Peacock is from Isle of Bute in Scotland and lives in Akron while Ring is from County Kerry in Ireland and lives in Chagrin Falls.

With the play set in Northern England, both must change their accents with each new character that enters.

"The way that [playwright Jim Cartwright] has constructed the play is that you're always leaving and coming back on the stage. So each time you come back on, you come back on as a different character," he said.

Sometimes they're forced to have conversations with themselves as different characters, each with a different accent.

Derdriu Ring

"You meet your character on the way out.  I meet one of my characters on the way out and talk to them," she said.

For Peacock, it's all a lot harder than it might look.

"Actors who watch this play will look at it and go, 'I'd really like to do that play. That's a really good fun play to do.' And if they're lucky enough to do it, they'll come to it and they'll go: 'Oh my goodness! This is really technically difficult,'" he said.

Jim Cartwright's " Two" is onstage at None Too Fragile Theatre through Friday, May 31.

Listen to a full scene from "Two:"

 

 

 

 

 

Dave DeOreo is coordinating producer for Ideastream Public Media’s arts and culture team.