Sean Hayes, David Cale, and Leigh Silverman are charting 'Unknown' territory off Broadway

The actor, writer, and director share a close collaboration on The Unknown, a solo show about an author who finds himself living a real-life psychological thriller.

Summary

• Actor Sean Hayes; writer David Cale; and director Leigh Silverman discuss their collaboration on The Unknown off Broadway
• The solo thriller play follows an author for whom the boundary between fiction and reality blurs while working at a remote cabin
• Performances run January 31 to April 12 at Studio Seaview

Aptly surrounded by books at the Lamb's Club in midtown Manhattan, Sean Hayes, David Cale, and Leigh Silverman were on a break from rehearsal to discuss the story of an author on the edge. That's the premise of Cale's latest thriller play, The Unknown, directed by Tony Award nominee Silverman and starring Tony and Emmy winner Hayes in his first solo stage venture.

He not only plays the aforementioned writer, Elliott, but nearly a dozen different characters that pop up as Elliott heads to an isolated cabin to work through a creative block. But when it becomes apparent that he might not be alone, the boundary between fiction and reality blurs as he finds himself living a psychological thriller of his own.

"I've never done anything this scary in my entire life. I don't know why I said yes," Hayes joked. "I'm kidding. I do know why I said yes — because of [Cale and Silverman]."

The writer and director previously staged two other solo thrillers off Broadway — 2017's Harry Clarke and 2022's Sandra — and Hayes now joins their intimate collaboration. The trio shared more about their work on The Unknown, playing at Studio Seaview through April 12, with New York Theatre Guide below.

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What has your collaboration been like on The Unknown thus far?

Sean Hayes: Working together and collaborating on this new show has been a dream come true for me. Leigh and I have wanted to work [together] for a long time, and she introduced me to David via the first 11 pages of the script. And I was like, "I've got to meet this guy. This is the most incredible writing I've ever read. Where is this going to go?" I feel very fortunate to work with both of them. It's an incredible experience so far.

David Cale: The whole idea of pairing this this story with Sean performing it was such a brilliant, thrilling idea — for a thriller. So I was just immediately [like], "Yes. If you want to do it, let's do it."

Leigh Silverman: I really was looking for something for Sean and I to do together, and the opportunity to to work with someone alone in a room is such an enormous privilege, and it's so fun. You really want to have the right person with the right brain and the right skill and the right sense of adventure and the right sense of, "let's just do this," and that's not everyone.

It's a huge endeavor, and it's also someone who can handle that pressure and also handle performing for a person who usually performs and writes their own work. The trust is the [key] piece [...] the fun, and the true collaborative vision of how we all see the show and that it's really aligned. It feels very exciting and very electric in the room.

How do you build the tension the thriller genre calls for in a solo, staged format?

Hayes: We rehearse naked. No.

As far as building tension in the story and in the process of rehearsing, it's not that much work. It's in the script. It's in the words that David crafted and in the way Leigh interprets it for me to understand, you know? A lot of the work, for me, has been done, and it's just polishing what's already there. One of the reasons I said yes to this is because I've never read something so brilliant that makes my job easy. Not too easy, but easier.

Is there a line in the show that stuck with you when you first read it, or that you feel encapsulates the play?

Hayes: David just wrote one recently that we added — can I give it away? "The past is not a place to live, it's a place to leave." And I was like, "Oh, I have to think about that. That's probably true."

Silverman: The thing about rehearsing this show is that it reveals itself as it goes along. It is an ever-shifting, morphing experience. It's really a ride. One of the ways it is a ride is through the music. And our sound designer, Carolyn Eng, and our composer, Isobel Waller-Bridge, they're in the room with us sculpting the show as we go.

All of your [Cale's] plays have music in them, and you wrote a piece for this show also. The music of the language and the actual music [...] it really helps lend that lift to the show as you go along that helps bring you on that ride.

Cale: It's really cumulative more than my other shows because Sean's playing someone who is in a story as well. He's being harassed by this actor who he's rejected at an audition, and it's this ongoing story that's unfolding for Sean's character as well as the audience.

Sean, how is this show different from the other stage and screen work you've done?

Hayes: It's a solo show, period. I've never done anything this scary in my entire life. I don't know why I said yes. I'm kidding. I do know why I said yes — because of these two guys.

It's different because of the characters I play. I play something like 10 different people in the show, and I've never done anything like that. Another reason I said yes is because of the challenge [...] it would be too easy to say no.

Get The Unknown tickets now.

Marissa Blanchard contributed reporting to this story.

Top image credit: Sean Hayes, David Cale, and Leigh Silverman in rehearsal for The Unknown off Broadway. (Photo by Austin Ruffer)
In-article image credit: Sean Hayes in The Unknown off Broadway. (Photos by Emilio Madrid)