I was surprised to discover after the show that Ray Fitzgerald is not, in fact, Jack London. He plays the character with a ferocious intensity, and conveys a sense of intimate personal knowledge with London's life, that could only have been achieved through a combination of serious study and a wild imagination. And I found him completely convincing. Off-stage, Fitzgerald was equally captivating, spinning tales out of his own past and London's in a dizzying mixture that served to keep those boundaries a little blurry, even after I came to my senses again.A Boston native, Fitzgerald spent a year researching and writing "Jack's Ghost: The Life and Afterlife of Jack London," after a lifelong love affair with the great American author. Consistently a victim of low wages and horrendous circumstances, London for a while rose to the distinction of the highest-paid writer in the world.
The play is structured as a first-person monologue, set in London's study near the end of his life, as he recounts tales from his life into a Dictaphone. A morphine-using communist roughneck, London led a life that ranged from the glamorous to the horrible, and practiced a form of workaholism reserved for only the most hardcore.
Fitzgerald adopts London's persona early on in the play and never lets up, speaking with the driven ferocity of the great writer himself. I stood in awe as Fitzgerald relived key moments in London's life, from his short tenure as an oyster pirate in San Francisco Bay, to his expedition to the Klondike in search of gold.
London seemed to constantly struggle with the same terrible work situation - long hours and the same wage, for most of his life - about 19 hours a day, for $30/month - no matter what kind of work he did. He performed a variety of duties to earn this wage, from shoveling coal to writing pulp drivel, and hated it. Intense doesn't begin to describe London himself, who died at age 40, after producing 21 novels, over 250 short stories, and a huge body of nonfiction work in his active career of just under 20 years. "Once he became determined," says Fitzgerald, "he was a success within a year. How many writers can say that?"
Fitzgerald has been performing, workshopping and refining his show for three and a half years. He started out with five hours of material, which he refines for every show based on his latest workshop feedback and the demands of the venue. He had London's short life span in mind when he finally decided to write the play, "...of course, procrastination had a hold over me," he says, "But I thought to myself, 'I'm getting older, and London died at 40...'"
While this production doesn't pay all the bills for him, it's been a fun ride, and Fitzgerald is happy to be in Anchorage again. "I always wanted to bring the show up to Alaska," he says, recalling not only London's fascination for this place, but also his last visit to Anchorage 22 years ago: "I drove up in a VW bus, thinking I was Jack Kerouac," he says.
- Fitzgerald adopts London's persona early on in the play and never lets up, speaking with the driven ferocity of the great writer himself.
Though Fitzgerald hoped to be able to present 'the essence of the man,' he realizes and is quick to point out the inherent futility of such an attempt. "You can't really tell someone's life or express their essence, no matter how much time you have," he says, "But hopefully somebody will be inspired to read him - pick up a biography, or a novel they haven't discovered, or some of his letters."
Fitzgerald could never understand why so many people see London as a "second rung" American writer, and hopes this play is a chance for them to rediscover him - to rise above the literary fads and fashions that modern academia plays so fast and loose with. So many people see London as a 'juvenile' or 'outdoor' writer, when just recently he was viewed as one of the greatest writers around. How has this happened? Well, everyone's got their own story, but to Fitzgerald it hardly matters. He just wants to see London rediscovered, and anything he can do to help out is a push in the right direction.
As I talk to Fitzgerald after the show, I learn more and more about London. Did you know he ran out of plot ideas and bought them from other writers, most notably Sinclair Lewis. How about that he sold Call of the Wild for a $2,000 flat fee, but never regretted it because it established his reputation as a writer. And the debate over how and why he died is still raging.
Fitzgerald could do the full five-hour monologue about Jack London, and I don't think I'd be bored for a second. Though he loves the show, Fitzgerald is getting the itch to move on and exercise his acting skills in a different environment. "I'm an actor," he says, "I've been acting for over 20 years. But being by yourself all the time, you lose the ability to relate to other actors."
He'll still be taking the show around the country, including a few performances at Jack London's original estate, which now houses the Glen Ellen Winery and the Jack London bookstore. Originally set up for London to run as a 'benevolent despot,' according to Fitzgerald, the plot of land and the bookstore now serve to enrich our understanding of this very special author.
"Jack's Ghost: The Life and Afterlife of Jack London", plays at Cyrano's, Thursdays through Sundays, at 7 p.m. throughout August.