BIRKENMEIER Sometimes we underestimate that sports is better theater: Its so much like a play except you literally dont know whats going to happen and somebody has to win. A hockey game as a community event is potentially more exciting than a play.
BROOK Well, most people think that.
What was it like researching the show?
BIRKENMEIER Watching the games at bars, I would sit and take notes and men would quiz me. They wouldnt believe that I was into it. They would ask, Whos your favorite player?
BROOK Thats a softball question.
BIRKENMEIER It is, and often theyd be like, Is your favorite player John Tavares? Or ask me what I thought of the last game. Or ask me what I thought of the new or old management, or whose contract was going to be up.
BROOK Insulting flirting: They want to show that theyre smarter than you, but its supposed to be a flirtation.
BIRKENMEIER Oh my God, I never took it as flirtation! I would have been more flattered. One guy was really excited about the play.
Did you go to many games as well?
BROOK We went to a bunch of games in Brooklyn and no one was there. After John Tavares left the [Islanders] and joined the [Toronto] Maple Leafs, I went to Nassau Coliseum at the first game against the Leafs and it was horrific. The fans were so angry, they kept yelling We dont need you! every time John came on the ice. It was scary, actually. Its not a show about violence but there is a sort of underlying fear that this guy [the narrator] is threatening, somehow.
BIRKENMEIER I generally think its important to be funny. Its very easy to take this and to take a serious skewering look at it.
BROOK No one needs to suffer right now.
BIRKENMEIER Lets have fun, you know?read more
Dudes on Ice: A Play About Hockey Tackles Masculinity, Too
