New York International Fringe Festival

And Then You Die (How I Ran a Marathon in 26.2 Years)

Producer: Cleveland Public Theatre

Author: David Hansen

Director: Alison Garrigan

The show is about what goes through a man's mind as he runs the NYC Marathon, so it blends the experience of the race with people and events that, circuitously, brought him there. The protagonist is a cartoonist and illustrator who never thought of himself as an athlete.  Beginning with his first running experience at age 12, he considers girls, hopes, girls, dreams, girls, professional frustrations, divorce, and other vagaries of becoming an adult.  By the time he reaches the end and his waiting family, he (hopefully) knows the difference between the finish line and what it takes to get there. Audiences can expect to travel the five boroughs, as well as the city of Cleveland, on foot, and to see simulated acts of smoking, vomiting, urinating and dancing.  And they will see me naked (not simulated).

My show is more universal than pertinent. It is about having doubts and fears but doing things anyway.  It's about triumph over adversity without being, you know, preachy or arrogant.

I tend to write about major events in my life, but to skew them in odd ways. Training for a marathon is just too f-ing hard to let go to waste, and it was something I never thought I would be able to do. To take that and create a solo piece about running in all five boroughs—and make it funny and interesting—was an exciting challenge. Plus it is sort of a love letter to New York, and my daughter.

Photo by Joshua D. Brown/Mark van Horik

David Hansen, playwright/performer