Where There’s Smoke…
Behind SMOKE: Interview with Enid Graham + Cast Announcement
By Liv Wilson
A mountaintop family wedding goes awry when consumerism and specialty flavored coffee distract everyone from the capital T truth they don’t want to see. The world premiere of SMOKE by Enid Graham comes to Cadence this spring, bringing horror comedy to audiences in RVA.
Photo credit: Enid Graham, photo courtesy of Xanthe Elbrick
Graham wrote SMOKE three years ago as a graduate playwriting student at Julliard. What began as inspiration around a specific location (a mountain McMansion) turned into a dark comedy about the polarization of our modern world. “I had the idea of a bunch of people in a mansion on top of a mountain who are all distracted and preoccupied by the gorgeous amenities of the house and don’t notice the nightmarish things going on at the bottom of the hill. Then I thought, ‘huh, that sounds like America right now.’” Three years later, the sentiment feels even more relevant as the distraction, manipulation, and in-fighting of Americans has become increasingly prevalent.
In the play, Graham highlights the ways in which we are subject to the narrative social media presents, ensuring we are all fighting against each other about meaningless things, instead of focusing on the actual problem at hand. Graham observes, “Social media makes you feel like you’re saying something, when you’re really not” and it is ultimately fruitless (besides cute baby pictures). Graham eventually had to get off Facebook and Twitter, which had become battlegrounds for political discourse with people from high school.
SMOKE’s dark conclusion is less of a button, but rather an opening of a conversation, to begin to discuss the issues that affect us all (like climate change) before it is too late. Graham notes, “We are all in this same boat and as long as we keep chopping at it with axes, we will sink.” This play encourages us to wake up and smell the smoke. If we stay divided, we will be weak and we will never face the real enemy.
As an actor and playwright (who made her professional acting debut right here in Richmond!), Graham writes with the performer at the forefront. She is constantly asking herself, “Would I want to play this? Is this fun or interesting? How would I get from this moment to that?” Centering the moment to moment traveling of each character leads to distinct writing choices, clear voice, and brilliant, naturalistic dialogue.
Graham fell in love with writing after seeking creative expression while raising her children. She was a part of a fiction writing group before turning to playwriting and beginning her own group to support other actors who write. Now, Graham writes in her dressing room, on the subway, on set, at home with kids, anytime she has fifteen minutes to spare.
Graham is thrilled to return to Richmond for the world premiere of SMOKE, directed by Anna Senechal Johnson. SMOKE will be a new collaboration for Graham and Johnson, incorporating the impeccable acting talent Richmond has to offer with a profound script.
Through a deeply dark horror comedy, SMOKE encapsulates the meaningless preoccupation and capitalistic gaslighting we all face as our country becomes further divided. If you get distracted by the latest news story, you just might miss it…SMOKEruns May 22nd to June 7th at the Firehouse Theatre. Join us for a post-show talkback withSMOKEplaywright Enid Graham and creative team members after the performance on May 23rd!
Featuring Gordon Bass, Maggie Horan*, Brian Landis, John Mincks, Laine Satterfield, Adam Turck, Debra Wagoner, and Kendall Walker.
*Member Actors' Equity Association is the labor union representing American Actors and Stage Managers in the theatre.
About the Playwright
Enid Graham is a writer and actress living in New York City where she is a 2022 graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Program at Juilliard. Most recently, Tenderness and Gratitude Number Four was seen as part of the Scripts in Hand series at the Westport Country Playhouse and it received a reading at the Chance Theatre in Anaheim, CA. Her play A Long Time Ago in a Dark Yard at Night was performed in a 2022 reading series at the Hudson Stage Company, and her short play for Zoom, Do Not Go, My Love was performed in an online reading series, also at Hudson Stage. Golden was presented in audio format for The Falconworks Theater Company. What Martha Did received a preview production in the Launch Pad series at UCSB. Her play Ruth was chosen for the National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Center and the New TACTics New Play Festival in NYC. What Martha Did was a finalist for the National Playwrights’ Conference and a semi-finalist in the Blue Ink Playwriting Festival in Chicago. Other plays include: Smoke (2022 NPC finalist), Pathological Venus (2020 finalist NPC), Something Unrecognizable, The Plans I Have for You, How To Save Ourselves and Saint Vegas. As an actress, her credits include numerous Broadway and off-Broadway productions such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and Honour (Tony Award nomination), and Television/Film including The Sinner, Boardwalk Empire, Margaret, Mare of Easttown, and Rabbit Hole.