See Winchester's Iain Bason in AFD's Irish drama "The Mai"

I asked Winchester resident Iain Bason a few questions about his experience as a member of the cast in Arlington Friends of the Drama's upcoming production of "The Mai". Bason stars as Robert, the lone male character in the play. Bason decided to try out for "The Mai" because he found the story quite compelling. In particular, he finds the relationship between Robert and The Mai to be a fascinating puzzle. He generally chooses to audition for plays based on whether he likes the overall story as opposed to being drawn to a specific character. "So long as the play has some depth," he says, "I get a lot out of the experience." He enjoys being part of something special and "The Mai" is clearly no exception. "The Mai" is Bason's first Irish drama and he finds it very interesting that it can be so dark and yet so funny. While he has done straight drama before, including such intense plays as "Death of a Salesman" and "A Streetcar Named Desire", he says
that those simply do not contain the kind of "laugh-out-loud" moments you will find in "The Mai".

This is also the first time that Bason has been asked to put on an Irish accent, but the whole cast is receiving tremendous support from fellow cast member Jenna Lourenco, who doubles as the play's dialect coach. She even gave the cast a copy of a CD and book to help the actors with the accent. In addition, Bason has been listening to movies like "Waking Ned Devine" and "The Snapper" to help him get his mouth and tongue accustomed to the speech patterns- and at this point, he has become quite comfortable with it. 

Mr. Bason is no stranger to AFD. He has been involved in several shows both on stage and off. Some of his previous roles have included Septimus in "Arcadia", Lucas in "Laughter on the 23rd Floor", and Frank in "The Memory of Water". He has also designed the lighting for several shows including last December's "Legally Blonde". Before he had kids, he used do a lot of work building sets. He is also very active on the Board of Directors. He is now AFD's president, having served previously as treasurer and technical director.

Asked what he has learned most from the play, Bason jokes, "I learned all about opium!" On a more serious note, he hopes he has learned to convey "a passionate attraction to Mai". He also hopes that people have some understanding of Mai and that they feel connected to her in some way. His aim is to make it very "conceivable that she could really love Robert." Bason explains that he has seldom played a less sympathetic character and the challenge is to make him into a "real person, with real vulnerabilities, dreams, and disappointments." Director Nancy Curran Willis has really helped him understand and know the character. Bason says that Willis is a lot of fun to work with as she is a "fountain of ideas". She has a good intuition about what will work. 

Though Bason does not know anyone in real life who reminds him of Robert, he has reached down within himself to draw inspiration for the development of his character. "I think I always try to find something (in me) that connects to the characters I play." In particular, he has tried to get in touch with Robert's feelings of self-loathing by thinking about times when he has actually felt that way and there are moments in the play where Robert's anger towards Mai is effectively a manifestation of his own contempt for himself. 

Don't miss your chance to see Winchester's Iain Bason as Robert in Arlington Friends of the Drama's production of "The Mai". 

"The Mai" runs two weekends between February 28th and March 2nd as well as March 7th through the 9th. Tickets are $20 and are available online at www.afdtheatre.org or by calling 781-646-5922. The Arlington Friends of the Drama is located at 22 Academy Street, Arlington, MA.