Last days of Ledger relived on stage

Heath Ledger died in New York City two years ago last month. This weekend, at the Waldron Arts Center, audiences can see an interpretation of the days leading to his death. 

The University Players will present their new play “The Last Days of Heath Ledger” on Friday and Saturday.

Written by IU alumnus Harry Watermeier, the play is a highly fictionalized account of the actor’s last week and is based on a short story by Lisa Taddeo. Watermeier found himself affected by the death and initially read the story expecting to be offended.
“Instead, I thought it was beautiful,” he said. “So a story that can change your mind like that must be pretty special.”

For the next 22 months after reading Taddeo’s story, Watermeier adapted the work, rewriting it twice. 

“The story is still incredibly important to it, but it’s really grown a lot,” he said. “This draft is very much ours.”

The growth of the drafts can be credited to public and private readings the University Players presented, said the play’s director, senior Maggie Smith. Watermeier was able to gauge reactions based on those readings and make suitable alterations.

“It’s been the University Players’ baby for over a year now,” Smith said. “It’s always dangerous to throw a new work out there and see if it can stand on its own, so we’ve been fostering it and nurturing it.”

Junior Russell Stout, who portrays Ledger, said the strength of the script is what attracted him to the project, though the themes it deals with are what intrigued him the most.

“It’s something we all strive for, to be these famous people,” Stout said.

Junior Kerry Ipema plays Mary-Kate Olsen in the production. Olsen was allegedly the last person to talk to Ledger before his death. Ipema, who was a member of the Mary-Kate and Ashley Fan Club as a child, said the most challenging part of the performance was finding a way to portray real people as fictional characters.

“By no means do I look like Mary-Kate,” she said. “The best thing for us to do as actors is to breathe life into the script and really let the words come alive and dictate who we are.”

Smith said she agreed.

“We tried to approach the play in the sense that the characters are third-hand removed from reality,” she said. “You have the real-life Heath Leger, then you have Lisa Taddeo’s Heath Ledger. Then we have the play’s Heath Ledger. It’s kind of delicate.”

After two years of writing and waiting, Watermeier said he is eager to see the final product.

“I jokingly say that I can’t believe people are taking this play seriously,” he said. “But, really, I can’t believe that these people, this great director and these great actors, care so much about this play I hobbled together on my laptop.”