In Performance: Shuler Hensley
Shuler Hensley in a scene from “The Whale,” Samuel D. Hunter’s play about a morbidly obese man.
Published: December 12, 2012
Room for ‘The Whale’
Samuel D. Hunter has just a few requirements for the set of “The Whale,” his play about Charlie, a morbidly obese gay man, and his estranged daughter. In the script Mr. Hunter describes a “desolate apartment in a cheaply constructed two story building.” At its center is a sagging couch “re-enforced by several cinder blocks.” “Little effort has been made to clean up trash or organize,” he stipulates. With a budget of $6,000, not including labor, the set designer Mimi Lien created a set for the production at Playwrights Horizons that tells one man’s story of emotional and physical deterioration. She was particularly influenced by the work of Stephen Shore, a photographer whose travels, cataloged in the book “Uncommon Places,” “cast a particular heightened reality” that also feels familiar, said Ms. Lien. Here she describes elements of her design. — ERIK PIEPENBURG
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The Décor Ms. Lien determined the layout by researching fallout shelters and bunkers, “the kind of spaces where you are holed up for a long time,” she said. The palette — light salmon on the walls and a darker shade of salmon on the carpet — is meant to create the feeling of being inside a fleshy belly. “We were really captivated by the story of Jonah being swallowed by the whale,” she said.
The Hallway The hallway that leads upstage goes to the bedroom and bathroom. (It actually goes right to the dressing room door.) Making it a long corridor forces Shuler Hensley, who plays Charlie, to take slow and unsteady steps, giving the audience a sense of how difficult it is for him to travel just a few steps. “We talked about seeing Charlie go to the bathroom in this excruciating journey,” said Ms. Lien. “It’s painful to see him try to get there.”
The Junk During rehearsals crew members brought in junk mail from home to put on the upstage left table to create the environment of a hoarder, something Ms. Lien said hit too close to home. She said: “When I was instructing the props people to dress the set I said I want it to look like my studio, which is a horrible thing to admit.”
The Wheelchair On a medical supply Web site she purchased the largest wheelchair they had. She estimates the seat is about 36 inches wide; a normal wheelchair is 18.
The Big Cup For Charlie’s gigantic cup Ms. Lien searched online under “giant cup” and on eBay found this 52-ounce plastic mug with the words “Flavors 2 Go.”
The ‘System’ Everything Charlie needs has to be within arm’s reach since ”he can’t bend over or reach the floor,” Ms. Lien said. The TV remote is stored in a box attached with duct tape to the mini-refrigerator. A grabber, which Charlie uses to pick things up, is inside an oatmeal box taped to the couch near Charlie's right hand.
The Carpet Ms. Lien sprayed parts with dark paint so it looked worn by years of neglect. In a few spots she gave the scenic artist, Carolyn Bonanni, instructions to make it especially dark. “Because he’s so big he would have spilled a Dr. Pepper or a meatball sub, and it would have stained,” she said.
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Excerpt: ‘The Whale’
Reyna de Courcy and Shuler Hensley in the Playwrights Horizons production of Samuel D. Hunter’s play.