Casting can change the meaning of a play. 

The latest example: Grangeville’s switcheroo from the initially-announced Brendan Fraser to the now-on-stage-at-the-Signature Paul Sparks. The primary difference between the two, at least in the eyes of most audiences: Fraser is a celebrity, while Sparks is closer to a character actor. As such, Sparks is probably more believable playing his salt-of-the-earth Idahoan character.

And yet, Fraser would’ve emphasized a fundamental truth of Grangeville: we are not observing Idahoan life as lived. Rather, we are watching it filtered through the brain of Samuel D. Hunter, one of the most successful playwrights of his generation who made it so far from his small-town home state that he ended up at the Academy Awards, for writing Brendan Fraser’s winning performance.

And Fraser would’ve been a constant reminder that Grangeville comes more from the made-it-big world of Sam Hunter than it does the actual reality of Idaho, further proof that the play can be interpreted as Hunter’s version of one of his doppelgänger’s dioramas.

Even more proof to undergird this interpretation can be found in the production’s poster design: