Podcast Summary: All Of It with Alison Stewart

Episode: Ethan Slater and Marshall Pailet's Play 'Marcel on the Train'
Date: February 19, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of All Of It dives into the new play Marcel on the Train, co-written by Ethan Slater and Marshall Pailet. The play explores a remarkable, little-known chapter of famed mime Marcel Marceau's life—his heroic efforts smuggling Jewish orphans out of Nazi-occupied France during World War II. Alison Stewart speaks with Slater (Tony nominee and star of the production) and Pailet (co-writer and director), uncovering the inspiration for the play, theatrical choices, and its deeper contemporary resonance.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Hidden History: Marcel Marceau, Freedom Fighter

• Discovery of Marcel’s Past

  • Ethan Slater recounts his shock at learning about Marceau's resistance work:

    “I grew up going to Jewish day school...you just know these stories. And I didn't know this story.” (01:20)

  • Slater discovered the story while researching silent film icons and their connections to Jewish identity.

• Why This Story Matters Now

  • Both Slater and Pailet, now Jewish fathers, found emotional urgency in telling this story, seeing its lessons as relevant to today's world.

2. Embodying Marcel Before He Was Marceau

• The Acting Challenge

  • Slater describes portraying a young Marceau, before he’d formally trained as a mime:

    “It's Marcel before he becomes Marceau...He just loves Charlie Chaplin, basically.” (04:41)

  • Extensive study of Marceau’s later performances—“just a lot of...painstaking watching videos”—and intensive movement rehearsals with Pailet and professional mimes.
  • Input from movement directors and Marceau’s disciples was crucial, particularly on signature mime techniques (“the pop,” gaze, creating objects from nothing).

• Quote:

  “As a mime, you're interacting with nothing...You have to define the thing for the audience before you interact and do a story with it.”
  — Marshall Pailet (06:37)

3. Adults Playing Children: Thematic and Practical Considerations

• Why Use Adults on Stage?
  • Pailet’s rationale: adults represent not only a child's life but their full potential and “decades and decades of life” saved (07:30).
  • Actors approached their roles by understanding a child's psychology, especially around danger and fear:

    “Some things, kids...think are scary that aren't that scary to us...It's kind of defining, how do you feel about this thing?” (08:05)

4. The Four Children: Archetypes on the Train

• Representation and Symbolism

  • The characters combine Holocaust history with storytelling structure, analogous to the “Four Children” from the Passover Seder (09:24):
    • The Idealist
    • The Without-Judgment Pessimist (the Pragmatist)
    • The Chameleon
    • The Traumatized/Stasis Child (“the one who doesn’t know how to ask”)

• Purpose of These Characters

  • Designed for maximum dramatic and philosophical tension, to challenge Marcel and create opportunities for debate about “the value of delight in the face of horror” (10:39).

5. Central Relationship: Marcel and Berta, the Pragmatist

• Dramatic Contrast
  • Berta serves as Marcel’s foil:

    "He is the ever optimist, and she is the ever...pragmatist." (11:29)

  • Their dynamic embodies the synthesis of optimism and realism—a mirror for Marceau’s own art, blending joy with an awareness of darkness.

6. Unique Theatrical Space: The Thrust Stage

• Staging Challenges and Benefits
  • The Classic Stage Company’s thrust arrangement (“stage goes out into the audience, three sides”) requires constant awareness of sightlines and engagement:

    “You always feel a little bit like you're giving somebody your back…But as an audience, you're in the show. You’re immersed in it. You feel implicated by it.” (12:52 – 14:09)

7. Humor, Clowning, and Tragedy: A Balancing Act

• Influence from Artists of the Era

  • Marceau and Chaplin’s works provided a model for blending laughter and horror:

    "If we laugh at the thing, it's not so scary...It makes you feel like you can do something about it."
    — Marshall Pailet (15:18)

• Contemporary Echoes

  • The play’s themes resonate with modern audiences:

    "This is the story about how children have the right to grow up without being hunted by soldiers...and yet we live in a time where that is happening."
    — Ethan Slater (16:10)

• Jewish Tradition of Humor in Adversity

  • Slater:

    “It’s quintessentially Jewish…to take these moments of deep pain and trauma and laugh either at it or through it or with it or alongside it.” (17:44)

• Audience as Co-Conspirator

  • Early previews revealed that some viewers hesitated to laugh, underscoring the show’s emotional complexity and the audience’s essential role (17:44 – 18:54).

8. The Power of Design: Lighting as Storytelling

• Lighting as a Theatrical Force
  • Designer Brandon Sterling Baker was encouraged to go “go arty, go beautiful, go silhouette,” contributing to both the mood and narrative clarity (19:28 – 20:15).

9. Collaboration and Direction: Building Trust on Stage

• Director-Actor Dynamic
  • Slater on benefiting from Pailet’s stage vantage:

    “Marshall’s great with the logistics...But actually, as you started talking, it made me think about just the moments of stakes.” (21:40)

  • Pailet highlights the trust required between them, and the challenge of playing high stakes while maintaining composure (21:10 – 22:38).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “This sort of life is beautiful story, but the story of Marcel Marceau in a moment that we don't know about. You know, I knew all about his work as a mime, but I didn't know about his work as a as a freedom fighter, as a writer.”
  — Ethan Slater (02:39–03:01)

• “The thought of placing this story on one train ride was exciting and thrilling to us...How could we incorporate silence and stillness and silliness and these things that were so uniquely Marceau?”
  — Marshall Pailet (03:23–04:31)

• “The mime tells you where to look. Right. So the gaze is really important...You have to explain to them: I am on the train. This is the train door. And now I am opening the door.”
  — Ethan Slater & Alison Stewart (06:10–07:00)

• “If we laugh at the thing, it's not so scary, and it makes...you feel like you can do something about it.”
  — Marshall Pailet (15:18)

• “We hope that this show in 2026 can be a bringer of light and delight, but also resolve for audiences who likely, like we are, are struggling and reckoning with a world that is seemingly darker by the day.”
  — Marshall Pailet (17:01)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Intro to Marcel on the Train and its real-life roots: (00:09–01:06)
• How the story first came to Slater’s attention: (01:20–02:39)
• Co-writing origins and personal connection: (03:05–04:31)
• Portraying Marceau and working with mime movement: (04:31–06:37)
• Casting adults as child survivors; thematic reasons: (07:21–09:15)
• The four archetypal children and their inspiration: (09:24–10:39)
• Central dramatic relationship—Marcel and Berta: (11:10–12:21)
• Challenges/benefits of the thrust stage at CSC: (12:34–14:09)
• Balancing clowning, humor, and Holocaust tragedy: (14:48–17:44)
• Theater as reckoning and Jewish humor: (17:44–18:54)
• Lighting design's standout role: (19:23–20:15)
• Director-actor trust and creative process: (20:15–22:38)

Episode Tone & Atmosphere

This conversation is candid, warm, and often playful, yet grounded by thoughtful reflection on trauma, heroism, and art’s capacity to offer light amid darkness. Slater and Pailet’s chemistry—long-term friends and collaborators—comes through as they juggle serious topics and the day-to-day realities of theater-making.

For listeners seeking insights on theater, history, or the role of art in confronting past and present evils, this episode is a lively, thoughtful entry point into both the making and meaning of Marcel on the Train.