This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Cedar City • David Ivers and Brian Vaughn have shared the Utah Shakespeare Festival stage before; their performances in the two-actor, multiple-character comedy-drama "Stones in His Pockets" in 2005 and 2012 are the stuff of festival legend. But the actors, who have been co-artistic directors of the company since 2010, have set themselves a bigger challenge this season: They'll share the title roles in Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple."

Of the 21 performances in the run that opens in previews Wednesday, there will be seven starring Ivers as slovenly Oscar Madison and Vaughn as fastidiously tidy Felix Ungar, seven with the roles reversed, and seven wild-card performances at which a coin toss between two randomly selected audience members will determine who plays whom.

Bill Rauch, artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, marveled at his colleagues' ambition, noting that the double-teaming comes in the same season when Utah Shakespeare Festival (USF) has opened two new theaters (the outdoor Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre and the 200-seat Anes Studio Theatre) and when each man is also directing a Shakespeare play.

"That is a unique, superhuman feat that must be unmatched in American theater history," Rauch said. "It is a testament to their talent, endurance and consummate artistry that they are able to pull this off."

Actor-director B.J. Jones, who directed "The Three Musketeers" at USF this summer, was blunter: "There isn't enough Red Bull in the world that could get me to do as much as those two guys are doing."

Vaughn and Ivers said Simon's plays have been on their wish list for years. "He is one of the premier American playwrights," Vaughn said. "It's shameful that we haven't done a Neil Simon play."

Media and public-relations manager Joshua Stavros said the company has steered clear of Simon partly out of deference to the Neil Simon Festival just up the street at The Heritage Center Theater. Because the neighboring festival has produced "The Odd Couple" three times already, USF was confident it wouldn't be stepping on toes.

Casting was one of the first questions once Ivers and Vaughn chose the play.

"Someone said it might be kind of funny if we flip-flopped," Vaughn said, though neither he nor Ivers knows for certain which of them said it first.

"Our mistake was to breathe it before the board," Ivers said.

There was no turning back. (Director J.R. Sullivan said because he's directed the actors before — most notably in both USF productions of "Stones in His Pockets" — his only concern was that there be sufficient rehearsal time; they built in an extra week.)

Several patrons already have bought tickets to at least two performances, marketing and communications director Kami Terry Paul said, "because they really want to see David and Brian in both roles."

The element of chance adds to the production's cachet, but the artistic directors said they also had to build in some predictability to ensure that each of them kept both roles fresh. "What if the coin came up heads five times in a row? I would not say Oscar's lines for 10 days in a row," Ivers said. "That would be devastating."

They also wanted to give some stability to their cast mates, whom Vaughn praised as "amazing."

"It's really interesting, the quality of listening you have to engage in — not only your own lines, and keeping straight who's who, but listening in a way where you engage with the music these particular actors are playing in these particular parts," said John Plumpis, who plays Oscar's poker buddy Speed. "The notes are the same, but the music is different because you have different instruments. It's like listening to [violinists Jascha] Heifetz and [Itzhak] Perlman play the same piece."

Vaughn acknowledged that this production is unlike anything he's done. "We're rehearsing it as if it's two productions in a rotating rep[ertory] model," he said. "That's the only way you can learn it."

It is unusual, especially considering that the actors double as company administrators, but the idea of alternating roles is deeply rooted in theatrical history: "I'm sure the Greeks did it," said Joe Hanreddy, a frequent guest at USF who's directing this season's production of "Julius Caesar."

Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, for example, alternated in the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature in the Royal National Theatre's 2011 production of "Frankenstein." Hanreddy also recalled a 2000 Broadway production of "True West" in which Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly alternated roles throughout the run; Reilly quipped in a Playbill article, "It's the secret actor's fantasy to play all the parts."

Hanreddy doesn't consider it a trick or a gimmick. "The whole point of the play — the whole point of the title — is about characters who are diametrically opposed personally," he said. "And when you make actors switch back and forth, that makes it a fun exercise."

Vaughn, Ivers and Sullivan said it's important to note that this story about two longtime friends with opposite temperaments, thrown into a shared living arrangement when their marriages fail, isn't a farce. "We take a very careful, serious approach to comedy," Sullivan said during a break from choreographing Oscar and Felix's pas de deux of passive aggression that opens the play's third act. "It's a dramatic comedy about serious issues in life."

"It's fun and it's funny," Vaughn said, "but it's also very poignant and touching."

Jones said the play is really about an examination of a relationship and the profound challenges of getting along. The idea of trading off Oscar's cigar for Felix's feather duster is dependent on the actors' trust and friendship, built from years of sharing onstage and offstage conversations, he said. "When David and Brian chose to do this, it was because they are in deep conversation with their audience artistically and, I would argue, personally. And they knew there was an audience who would think it would be a blast to see them run that gantlet on a given night." —

It takes two

The Utah Shakespeare Festival presents Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple."

Where • Randall Jones Theatre, 299 W. Center St., Cedar City

When • Preview performances Wednesday, Sept. 14, 7:30 p.m., and Thursday, Sept. 15, 2 p.m.; production plays various dates and times Friday, Sept. 16, through Saturday, Oct. 22

Tickets • $32-$73; bard.org

Who's playing whom? • Brian Vaughn plays Oscar and David Ivers plays Felix on Sept. 14, 20, 23 and 30 and Oct. 6, 11 and 21; Ivers plays Oscar and Vaughn plays Felix on Sept. 15, 22 and 28 and Oct. 5, 7, 13 and 19. An audience coin toss will determine casting for the performances Sept. 16, 17 and 24 and Oct. 1, 8, 15 and 22.