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Chain letters
Bruce Graham explains Coyote
BY SALLY CRAGIN

One of the most chilling letters ever received by playwright Bruce Graham, whose Coyote on a Fence has its area premiere next week, was from Texas death-row inmate James Beathard, in 1999. The two had struck up a correspondence after Graham read an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Beathard. Here was a prisoner who served as editor of the jailhouse newsletter Texas Death Row Journal and also wrote obituaries for executed inmates. "He was having a hard time finding positive things to say about them," says Graham. By anyone’s measure, an intriguing man. As the two began exchanging letters, gears began to turn for Graham.

"At that time, I was writing so many movies, I wanted to write something where there was dialogue and not just action," the playwright explains. He began sketching ideas for an epistolary-style drama as his correspondence with Beathard continued and deepened. The two grew close, though they never met face to face. Graham sent the prisoner a photograph of his daughter and some of his own published books. And then, he recalls, "I hadn’t heard from him in a while and had gone off on vacation. When I came home, there was a letter from him. Usually, I had to put aside an hour to read his letters because they were so long and so well-written." This missive had an unexpected salutation: "Graham, by the time you get this, I’ll be dead."

Though Beathard never saw the inmate drama his story inspired, he knew Graham was working on the play. Coyote on a Fence premiered in 1998 at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, won the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Award for Best New American Play, and has since had multiple productions around the US. It will receive its area premiere February 28, courtesy of Boston Theatre Works. The lengthy one-act (running time is approximately one hour, 40 minutes) centers on two death-row inmates. One is John Brennan, who whiles away the hours playing chess by mail and writing disinfected obituaries for his fellow prisoners. His life is turned upside down when his cell partner is executed and his replacement turns out to be Bobby Reyburn, an unapologetic white supremacist. "We use the term cell ‘partner,’" explains Brennan in the play. " ‘Mate’ has certain connotations."

As the play unfolds, the audience’s assumptions are constantly challenged, and both men go from sympathetic to antagonistic to forgivable to reprehensible and back again. For director Nancy Curran Willis (who co-directed BTW’s award-winning production of The Laramie Project), the trick in guiding the cast is "reminding them that they are playing people, not issues. We are not dealing with whether these men should be put to death but with the fact that they are going to be put to death."

For Graham, no political campaigner, Coyote on a Fence was his first try at a behind-bars portrait, a genre he views as evergreen. "Prison movies will always be popular," he says. "It’s the vicarious thrill of ‘would I survive it?’" An accomplished film and television writer, Graham’s credits are varied and include everything from rewrites on the Harrison Ford/Brad Pitt thriller The Devil’s Own to the Disney bio-pic Anastasia and episodes of Roseanne. "It’s going to sound shallow, but my first job is to entertain people," he says. "My first job is to put up characters and stories to keep you interested."

Coyote on a Fence is presented by Boston Theatre Works at the Tremont Theatre, 276 Tremont Street, Boston, February 28 through March 23. Tickets are $25, $20 for seniors and students; call (617) 939-9939. Area photographer Lou Jones also knew James Beathard and included him in his collection of photo essays, "Final Exposure: Portraits from Death Row." Jones will participate in a pre-show discussion on Thursday, March 13, at 6:30 p.m.

Issue Date: February 20 - 27, 2003

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