Legendary baseball player Ty Cobb comes to life in Victoria’s own Ocean Bloom Productions. In the family production Brian Wrigley plays Babe Ruth and younger brother Corin Wrigley plays Ty Cobb. The play delves into the not so accurate bibliographic myths surrounding Cobb and reveals a more accurate portrait of the legend’s life.
Martlet: How would you sum up your show in a sentence or phrase?
Brian Wrigley: Episodes from the life of Ty Cobb, considered by many to have been the greatest and most controversial major league baseball player of all time.
M: Where did you get the idea or inspiration for your show?
B.W.: My younger brother, Corin Wrigley, became fascinated with Cobb over the years, in part because he bats the way Cobb did (all four of us brothers in our family play ball). He has read pretty much everything ever written about Cobb, and came to the conclusion that Cobb has been a convenient scapegoat for major league baseball.
In other words, by making Ty Cobb out to be an isolated example of antisocial behavior and racism. The truth of course, is quite different, as anyone who watched the recent film 42, about the life of Jackie Robinson, can see. But we were also drawn to Cobb’s story simply because he had a very dramatic life at a fascinating time.
M: What is the most interesting experience you’ve had while performing?
B.W.: For me personally, playing Babe Ruth, who is one of my all time favourite players.
M: Is there a message or a moral you’d like audiences to take away from your show?
B.W.: That it really isn’t possible for anyone to truly judge the life, achievements, and failures of any other person, that our assumptions about other people are often wrong, and that people can change for the better.
M: If your characters could live in any era other than their own, what would it be and why?
B.W.: Actually the characters in our play are very specific products of a very specific time. But I would love to see them alive today, and be able to watch them match up against the players of our time. That would be quite a game!
“Something Like a War” at Victoria Fringe
Metro Studio Theatre, 1411 Quadra St
Saturday, Aug. 31@ 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, Sept.1@ 8:45 p.m.
$11 Regular, $9 Student/Senior (plus $6 Fringe Visa Button)
