In Dirt, Austrian-American actor Christopher Domig plays Sad, an Iraqi immigrant living illegally in an unnamed metropolis. Sad spends his days selling roses to people who more often than not don’t even seem to notice he’s there. He reminds himself constantly “my name is Sad, but I am not Sad”. If watching the performance is intense, one can do little to imagine what it must be like to play this character night after night, especially for Domig who has played this character in four different countries during the past few years. We spoke to the actor about what it’s like to bring the show to New York City and how people’s reactions here have differed from those in other parts of the world.

What kind of preparation do you go through before every performance?

It’s a pretty physically demanding show, for one it’s a one-person show and it’s a very emotionally draining show and the emotions and body are so connected that they drain me physically, so I try to find a moment during the day to warm up physically, which includes stretching, yoga and breathing exercises. I’ve been working with an Iraqi actor who’s been coaching me with the dialect, in addition to doing a regular vocal warm up. Most days I try to get to the theater early and “walk through” what I’ll be doing onstage. I try to remind myself what it is that the character is doing. Then specifically, because this is such a long script, as an actor I’m aware of the specific moments I wanna deepen, so I choose these moments and work on them, in the hope that during the performance they’ll be enriched. These moments change from performance to performance.

Sad is always addressing the audience. Does the tone of your performance change depending on how the audience that night is reacting?

Yes, that’s a great question. It presents a dilemma for me, because every time I’ve done this play I’ve gone through this cycle in trying to determine what my relationship is to the audience. I talk to the audience, but while I’m rehearsing I’m by myself, even though the audience in a way are my scene partners. There’s really no way to prepare for a live crowd, so during the first two performances I’m very aware of the audience. I can hear the people snoring, I can see them looking at their watch, ignoring me...so it’s difficult during the first performances to let that happen. By opening night, I’m usually comfortable enough knowing that the audience will have many different reactions. As an actor I have to find a way to take Sad through his journey in the best way I can. I do want there to be a performance, but I can’t depend on the audience to make that performance.

As an actor, can you talk about the fact that people like Sad who we see every day in the streets or in the subway, are basically doing the same performance every day in order to stay alive. Did you draw any inspiration from that?

I have certainly changed the way that I talk to people, whose job seems to be mundane. Part of it has been doing this show, I’ve learned to ask questions to people I’ve often ignored. I ask questions now. I talk to cab drivers, just recently I heard a story from a guy from Mali who the next day was picking up his son from the airport, a son he hadn’t seen in years. I invited him to the show and asked him to bring his son to the show. I have a six-month old daughter now, and I can’t imagine what it’s like not to see your kid for years. I now have conversations with people with lives similar to Sad’s. There’s a line in the play that really speaks to me, when he says “unfortunately people seldom engage in conversation with one another”, and this isn’t just in New York, it’s everywhere really. There are people who get left on the sidelines and no one talks to them, so this mantra of talking to yourself comes from the desperation of being alone. The playwright says that the first act of the play is a guy selling roses outside, so what I started doing is I take my roses, get on my wardrobe and go outside and try to sell roses, which is scarier to me than acting. Everyone ignores me, I’ve yet to sell a rose in New York. I do that for about ten minutes and then I’m so drained. Trust me, you don’t need to sell roses for too long in the East Village, it’s surreal cause I show up to the theater with my regular clothes and I see how people interact with me, but then when I’m out in my costume people look at me completely different. This reminds me why this play is so important and why Sad should be heard.

You’ve performed the show in four different countries. Have the reactions been very different from country to country?

There’s always been some laughter at the beginning, and it always gets quieter as it goes on. I’ve interacted with people all over and sometimes there are people who haven’t understood it and some who’ve had strong reactions to it. I made a close friend from Turkey, a woman in Berlin who came to me crying and said the show was her story. We became friends, because of the show. Similarly in Portland, someone said the show was therapeutic for her, because her father had gone through the same experiences. I can’t say I’ve had hundreds of those interactions, but I’ve had enough interactions to say the show is important. Also, the perspective of who the play talks about changes between countries, in Canada they related it more to drug addicts than illegal immigrants.

You’ve been living with this character for quite some time now. Has it become easier for you to unwind at the end of the day?

I need some time, I don’t go out after the show, I am grateful when friends come and talk to them, but I’m usually pretty exhausted and need some time to unwind. I go home and talk to my wife (who produced the show), but yeah, I wish this was a show where I’d be in the mood to go celebrate afterwards, but I feel drained. It’s a feeling of being more drained than depressed, when I was in London I was by myself mostly because I didn’t have many friends. So I became depressed there because my only human interaction was with the audience when I played Sad. Ever since, I only make the play if there’s someone I can talk to afterwards.

Dirt is now playing. For tickets and more click here.