Coupling

Dizzia and Keller in Cradle and All (photo by Joan Marcus)

Maria Dizzia and Greg Keller aren't a couple in real life, but the current New York Theatre Workshop production of Amy Herzog's Belleville represents the fourth time they've played husband and wife. It began in early 2011 when they played two married couples in Daniel Goldfarb's Cradle and All, and continued with the Yale Rep premiere of Belleville later that year. The paper of record thought it would be interesting to find out how they've created a believable fictional rapport onstage. It helped that they clicked from the start:

Ms. Dizzia...was already attached to [Cradle] and was reading with a series of potential lead actors. Then Mr. Keller walked in.

“Her response to him was so profound,” recalled the play’s director, Sam Buntrock. “‘Chemistry’ is a terrible word. It evokes for me something very clinical, with test tubes and sulfur. What I like to talk about is the physical and emotional space between two people. Greg and Maria had it from Day 1. Even if they were on opposite sides of the stage, the space between them was palpable.”

RTWT here.