This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon: How do you write a riveting play about laundry and sleep? If you’re Elizabeth Birkenmeier, you fold in strangers, secrets and a gun, or at least the possibility of a gun.
“There’s a Gun in My Goodbye Bag” opens Friday, June 14, not in a theater but at Classic Coin Laundry in University City. St. Louis’ OnSite Theatre company performs all its work in real-life settings, which have included a bowling alley, a youth hostel and a building reportedly inhabited by ghosts.
Birkenmeier, 27, who graduated from MICDS and Washington University and now lives in New York City, was asked to set this play in a laundromat. The rest was up to her. As a curious person, she wondered about all the things people do while waiting on their laundry. As the child of a pediatric sleep specialist, she thought about how some people sleep only by periodically nodding off throughout the day -- something called polyphasic sleep, that even boasts its own Facebook page.
In a conversation with the Beacon, Birkenmeier revealed her own penchant for sleeping not in spurts but “in long, huge chunks,” and her fondness for doing laundry.
Do you spend much time in laundromats?
Elizabeth Birkenmeier: I live in Brooklyn, and I do my laundry across the street at a little laundromat, probably every other week. I love laundromats. Weirdly, I was extremely excited that this play would be in a laundromat -- that’s how much I love them.
I love going to do my laundry because you’re really allowed to just sit and wait. I think it’s very relaxing. I often think of falling asleep there, but normally, I read and write.
Did you write this play while waiting on your laundry?
Birkenmeier: Probably. Yeah. Not the bulk of it but certainly parts of it.
Where does the gun come in?
Birkenmeier: There may or may not really be a gun. It’s an ominous premonition in the play. The title comes from one of my girlfriend’s brothers talking in his sleep, saying, “There’s a gun in my goodbye bag.” It’s a family story, and such a mysterious thing to say that I wanted to name a play, that.
I have no idea what a goodbye bag is.
Will you see the play in St. Louis?
Birkenmeier: I’m playing Peter Pan at the Ozark Actors Theater. It opens on June 20 so it overlaps the OnSite piece. I think there’s a Friday when I’m doing “Peter Pan” in the afternoon so I can come to St. Louis that night.
Elizabeth Birkenmeier chats with Washington University professor Carter W. Lewis about a 2011 production of “Cha-Cha of a Camel Spider,” starring Birkenmeier.
In “Peter Pan,” the Darling children are asleep when Peter comes. So there’s a theme of sleep in your theatrical life right now.
Birkenmeier: Thematically, they’re totally different. But there’s definitely a dream reality in “Peter Pan,” a dream logic that’s actually quite similar to “Goodbye Bag.”
In “Peter Pan,” the adult mind is supposed to assume it’s all a dream but it’s very much a reality to the kids, which is similar to “There’s a Gun.” I think the grownup mind will want to make that play a dramatic reality. Everything that happens is completely real to those who are experiencing it.
