Role:            Todd Kemp
Where:         Chicago Cooperative Stage Center
Playwright:   Ron Mark

Mortal Risk was an original play about a killer, a mean guy, a psychopath who's pretending to have a multiple personality to get away with it, to cop an insanity plea.  It had the most horrific scenes of attack that I can remember.  I played Todd, the killer.  But I had to do a lot of homework about multiple personality and find out what that really was, and find out that it was actually just coming to be understood to be real and not just people faking it. (clip) It was a very intelligent and creative response to sustained abuse and that only very intelligent people had multiple personality syndrome.  It's a sign of high intelligence - and it came into play later in my life when a friend of mine, I found, had that affliction and I helped my friend come into a little more fullness of herself. So that ended up being a good thing - one of the good things about being an actor, you learn stuff. 

Oh yeah, there's a dude who played the guard who was insane. He was a Vietnam vet and nothing against vets but this guy was crazy.  He would throttle me.  He couldn't deal with the fact that I was the stunt coordinator and that I was the lead and that I could tell him what to do with regard to the stunts. (clip) I was handcuffed for real in the scene and he ended up really roughing me up before I fired him. (laughs)  Oh yeah, I mean I'm like handcuffed in front of a hundred people - boom right in the eyes with his fingers, he just pokes me right in the eyes - and then picks me up by the neck - out of the chair.  He was huge - he was a huge guy.  Yeah, you're fired.  And the next guy who played the role was (indicates tiny person) a very slight guy, but a better actor actually and the director of the play.  He was good.  JM.com 2007

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"The murderer, Todd Kemp (nicely played by James Marsters), turns out to be a victim of severe child abuse. Orphaned and left in the care of a lunatic aunt, he spent much of his childhood chained to a radiator in her cellar, where she poked him with knives and other objects and slaughtered his pet cat, the child's only solace.  Hence he developed a wealth of alter-egos to hide from life's grim realities."  Sid Smith · Chicago Tribune · September 29, 1988

"James Marsters delivers a breathtaking performance as Todd... James Marsters claims 'innocence by insanity' in "Mortal Risk."  Joe Pixler · Chicago Sun-Times · October 5,1988