The dark comedy "Wrongful Death and Other Circus Acts," written by local playwright Christopher Demos-Brown got a dose of something different when artistic director of Zoetic Stage Stuart Meltzer chimed in on what he thought might add to the original work.
The play, which gets its world premiere at Zoetic Stage this weekend inside the Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center, is about a personal injury lawyer who, following a fatal plane crash, scrambles to get the case of a lifetime.
Demos-Brown had been "tinkering" with "Wrongful Death" for a long time, he says.
"I had half of it written five or six years ago." There was a reading as part of Miami-Dade County's Playwright Development Program," says Demos Brown. "And then Stuart read it a year ago and said, 'this really invites a circus concept.' He suggested that I go back and look at that aspect. So I rewrote it with that in mind. There have been lots of little tweaks and changes to help facilitate a whole, three-ring circus concept."
He and Meltzer have collaborated more than a few times. "The .. . 'Other Circus Acts' concept was his idea.' "
Not that Demos-Brown doesn't know himself of the oh what a circus, oh what a show kind of industry the world of lawyering is.
"The main character is all about the money, so that's the concept. These are broad comic characters that are dealing with this kind of dark tragedy looming in the background."
The playwright gets many of the ideas for his plays from his day job as a civil trial attorney.
"I've practiced this kind of law my whole legal career and there comes a point for people who have been practicing law for a while, especially if you're doing criminal or tort law, that you either become hardened by it, or you have to have your own reckoning with it. I started writing 'Wrongful Death' about the time that reckoning started to happen," Demos-Brown admits. "Our (legal system) has a very crude method for compensating people for very grievous losses and we haven't been able to find a better way, but this one certainly has its problems. That idea is what drove this play."
Despite the development of the play over years, "Wrongful Death" finds relevance, too, among the #metoo movement. "Once we started rehearsals at Zoetic, it was a couple of months after the Harvey Weinstein stuff, and then I realized that this is a play that I wrote long before any of this came to light. But this does kind of turn things on its head. There is a female character in the play who is aggressively sexual . . . she's a female sexual harasser, so in some ways, it does deal with that issue."
While he's just getting "Wrongful Death" off the ground, when asked his hopes for the play he says that there's always a wish that all of his works will have a life after a world premiere.
For his play "American Son," that dream has come true. In November, the play commissioned by Barrington Stage Company in Massachusetts in 2015 about a estranged bi-racial couple who must confront their feelings about race after their son is detained by local police following a traffic stop, will open on Broadway, according to www.floridatheateronstage.
Meanwhile, "Wrongful Death" gets ready for its closeup. "It's the fourth time Stuart and I have worked together, and we've taken on some challenges with how we're doing this one."
Zoetic Stage's "Wrongful Death and Other Circus Acts" is on stage Jan. 19-Feb. 4 at the Carnival Studio Theater at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami.
Performances are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 4 p.m. Sundays. There's a matinee 3 p.m. Jan. 20. Tickets $50 and $55. Call 305-949-6722 or visit www.arshtcenter.org.
