Winners and Losers, Theatre Replacement and Neworld Theatre

Winners and Losers, Theatre Replacement and Neworld Theatre

Marcus Youssef and James Long explain the personal impact of the show

One of the big questions we are chewing on right now is what long-term effect the show may have on us as performers, as friends and as human beings. The show really bangs around in your head each night after it’s done. Especially if you feel you’ve ‘lost.’  

In a more conventional piece, having a bad night as a performer might leave you temporarily feeling like a bad actor. That’s a standard neurosis for actor types, and one you learn to brush off pretty quick. A bad night in Winners and Losers leaves you feeling like a bad person – not as easy to brush off. 

Occasionally that means more detailed check-ins prior to the show, but just as often it means retreating to beef up your arsenal for the next night.  If the goal is to win – you win. So what are the long-term effects of this? When, or how often, will someone go too far in the show? What might seem like a quick jab to one person could be a massive upper cut to the other. Is someone being too sensitive? The other an asshole? Then you have daily moods to deal with, the fact we are often missing our families, the ongoing trials of living on the road.  

When you add to this the fact that the characters you see on stage are so closely linked to Marcus and Jamie in real life, it can sometimes add up to bit of mind-fuck. Some of our closest friends/colleagues have expressed serious concern about the show’s impact. Not on our audiences, but on us. We think we’ll be okay.  But we’ll have done Winners and Losers about 40 times by the time we hit Dublin. And we have another 50 or so booked to follow.

We’re very curious to see where our heads are at in a year’s time.

Marcus Youssef and James Long
Images Simon Hayter

  

Marcus Youssef (right) and James Long (left)

To see the guys in action, watch this:

For more information and to book tickets, click here

Winners and Losers runs Sept 26-29 in Project Arts Centre