BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN
A staged adaption of the short stories written
by David Foster Wallace

John Ball is a ‘HIDEOUS MAN‘

John Ball
BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN by DFW

INTERVIEW #42
– HIDEOUS MAN ‘M8’
“Some of the stalls’ shoes touching their mate hesitantly, tentatively, as if sniffing it. The damp lisp of buttocks shifting on padded seats. The tiny pulse of each bowl’s pool. The little dottles that survive flushing.”

INTERVIEW #51
– HIDEOUS MAN ‘T19’
“I always think, “What if I can’t?” Then I always think, “Oh shit, don’t think that.” Because thinking about it can make it happen. Not like it’s happened that often.”

INTERVIEW #59
– HIDEOUS MAN ‘J22’
“I have not yet explained the great secondary power which I also possess in the masturbation fantasy, the supernatural power to halt time and magically to freeze all other of the room’s exercisers in their tracks with a covert circular motion of my hand.”

NSTC SHOWS / ROLES

John Ball made his debut appearance with Nasty Shadows back in 2009 as ‘Forensics Expert -> Tapemouth Man’ in the Company’s production of Orestes 2.1 — an evocative performance still casting a Shadow. A regular performer with Bard in the Barracks, John has played ‘King Lear’, ‘Boyet’, ‘Gonzalo’, and ‘Polonius’ in recent years. He has also composed music for the songs in several Bard shows, including The Tempest (2013); acted in and written various short plays for NotaBle Acts; and directed Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale (2013) and Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy (2012), among other productions, for Theatre UNB. John tackled the challenge of ‘Prospero’ in last year’s remount of a Nasty Co-founder’s original work, Rougher Magic: A cubist Shakespeare. The upcoming staged adaptation of Brief Interviews With Hideous Men finds John in a HIDEOUS portrayal of 3 men openly expressing their most personal thoughts and perceptions.