About the Project
Elaine May is no stranger to comedy as she was first noticed in the 50s for the comedy routines she and Mike Nichols would put together before turning to directing and screenwriting (Heaven Can Wait !)
“The Way Of All Fish” is approximately 40 minutes and takes place in an office between two female characters, a boss and her secretary.
Below the critic from Variety that gives a good idea of what is to be expected.
“In the curtain-raiser, “The Way of All Fish,” May has devised a ghoulish encounter between a wealthy Madison Avenue business exec and her mousy secretary. When the well-organized Ms. Asquith discovers her dinner plans have been disrupted, she invites her efficient secretary, Miss Riverton (Jeannie Berlin), to share a glass of wine and send out for Japanese cuisine. As the secretary (and would-be “assistant,” because the title pays more) consumes several glasses of the grape, the tentative conversation, which begins with the clarity of the wine, leads to the sex life of fish and the body-building values of daily aerobic exercise.
The chat takes a menacing turn when Riverton opines that the only way she’ll ever become famous is to murder a celebrity. Assessing the accomplishments of assassins, she dismisses Booth, who only killed a president, and Manson, who murdered a starlet and a few hairdressers. She decides to settle for someone rich and important, adding, “Oprah’s a possibility!”
Asquith reveals a quiet terror with the realization that she is playing “cat and mouse with a bimbo.” Berlin (May’s daughter) is effectively droll and humorously chilling as the spaced-out secretary. May invests the employer with the expressive, mannered restraint that once defined her classic improvisational pieces with Mike Nichols.”
The two roles are already cast.
Production Team
