The Write Life
married playwrights Jim and Jane Jeffries stage new script based on novel
What’s the secret to a happy, successful marriage?
Eau Claire playwrights Jim and Jane Jeffries know, but they’re not telling – at least not quite yet.
To learn the answer – or at least one of the answers – you’ll have to see the married duo’s latest theatrical creation, An Innocent Affair, a comedy they will stage Sept. 28-30 at Valleybrook Church. The play, which will be brought to life by a group of local actors dubbed the In the Light Theatre Company, is based upon the 1912 book Manalive by British writer G.K. Chesterton.
“It’s a surprise ending … but it talks about how to keep a commitment fresh and what a romance really is.” – Jim Jeffries, on An Innocent Affair, a play he wrote with his wife, Jane
The theme of the book (and play) – which revolves around a lively eccentric named Innocent Smith whose antics disrupt the lives of several couples – is very important to the Jeffrieses. “It’s a surprise ending … but it talks about how to keep a commitment fresh and what a romance really is,” Jim says. He describes the play as essentially a buddy comedy about three guys and three girls. While the setting of the tale has been shifted from early 1900s London to the present day, it remains a comedic romance complicated by accusations of attempted murder, burglary, and bigamy (plus, Jim says, an unseen bicycle).
The theme of living one’s life to the utmost – something embodied by the character Innocent Smith – is important to Jim and Jane, as are the causes that the play will benefit. Part of the proceeds from the Thursday and Friday shows will be used to upgrade Valleybrook’s stage, while the Saturday show will benefit August Davidson, who has cerebral palsy and is the son of one of Jane’s former students.
Jim and Jane have been writing plays together for more than 20 years. They have penned 18 plays available from four different publishers, in addition to 30 comedic scripts designed for use at madrigal dinners. Their works have been staged everywhere from Croatia to Thailand, as well as at North High School, the Eau Claire Children’s Theatre, the Heyde Center for the Arts, and in the Twin Cities as part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival.
Has working together put a strain on their 32-year marriage? “When your spouse kills your favorite character or destroys your favorite joke …” Jim grumbles with mock annoyance. They laugh. The answer, it seems, is no. After two decades, they’ve developed an effective system of collaboration: Jane typically creates the plots, then Jim injects some humor and fleshes them out.
Recently, in addition to staging An Innocent Affair, the couple tackled a new challenge: writing radio drama. They were inspired in part by a live performance of War of the Worlds broadcast last year on Blugold Radio. “We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to do an old-time radio thing with local history, because local history is crazy?’ “ Jane explains. They started researching and discovered a treasure trove of true tales that have served as inspiration for Wisconsin History Theatre, which will run for six consecutive Sundays starting Oct. 7. (After that, they’ll also be available to download as podcasts.) Among the topics of these dramatized (but still real-life) tales: Ella the Elephant, a circus pachyderm buried in Eau Claire; the infamous “cave lady” who lived along the bank of the Eau Claire River; a kangaroo court convened in the early days of Eau Claire to drum up business for the town’s two attorneys; and more. The playwrights say they’ve stayed as historically accurate as possible in their writing, although the facts in some cases were somewhat sketchy – thus the tagline for the series is “Real Stories, Reimagined.” Imagination, it appears, is something that Jim and Jane Jeffries have no shortage of.
An Innocent Affair, written and directed by Jim and Jane Jeffries • Thursday-Saturday, Sept. 28-30 • 7pm • Valleybrook Church, 412 S. Barstow St., Eau Claire • $13 • all ages • (715) 833-0140 • jugglejeffries@gmail.com
