Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The decidedly avant-garde but deeply haunting DANA H. and IS THIS A ROOM unsettle and disorient at the Lyceum

• By drediman
• October 26, 2021
• No Comments

This past weekend, I parked myself at the Lyceum Theatre to indulge in a fascinating Broadway doubleheader comprised of Lucas Hnath’s Dana H. and Tina Satter’s Is This a Room (for their repertory debut on the Great White Way, these plays have been branded together as “The Lyceum Plays”). Developed by Vineyard Theatre Off-Broadway, both are experimental, pseudo-documentary plays that use verbatim accounts as the basis for their texts. Despite the strong reviews they garnered during their respective pre-pandemic runs, their decidedly avant-garde aesthetic nonetheless have deemed them unlikely candidates for Broadway transfers. Don’t let this deter you, however. Both are uniquely theatrical – albeit, unsettling and disorienting – tone poems that you’ll be thinking about long after you’ve left the theater.

Dana H. chronicles the true story of the Mr. Hnath’s mother, Dana Higginbotham, who was abducted and incessantly abused by a mentally unstable criminal for five months while the playwright was in college. The play uses Ms. Higginbotham’s own recorded account (she was interviewed by The Civilians’ Steve Cosson, who himself is no stranger to these types of docudramas), to which stalwart New York stage actress Deirdre O’Connell meticulously lip-syncs (!). Lip-syncing is typically associated with larger-than-life personalities and festive environments (e.g., drag queens at gay bars), which Dana H. possesses neither of – Ms. Higginbotham is introspective, and her recollection of the disturbing events of her past is almost unnervingly clear-eyed and devoid of sensational storytelling flourishes. Ms. O’Connell’s performance is a marvel of control, technique, and humanism, elevating lip-syncing into a true theatrical art form as she uncannily channels the play’s subject. If anything, her extraordinarily nuanced and naturalistic work has attained even more grace and gravitas on the journey uptown. Because of its unique nature and sheer audacity, I have little doubt that Ms. O’Connell’s quietly gutsy performance is destined to become the stuff of theater legend.

No less deeply haunting is Is This a Room, which uses a censored transcript to conjure a stylized vision of the FBI’s initial encounter with Reality Winner, who in 2017 was arrested for leaking classified information regarding the Russians’ interference with the 2016 elections. Conceived and directed by Ms. Satter, the piece is an intriguing artistic achievement – not only is Is This a Room a compelling study in the awkwardness underlying most human interactions, it’s also been shaped into a theatrical experience approaching something like a Pinter play. Indeed, the censored gaps in the text, together with the tense and spectral quality of Ms. Satter’s staging, have slyly heightened the mystery and mounting menace of the interrogation to gripping dramatic effect. In the central role of Reality, Emily Davis gives a prismatic, highly-charged performance that’s at once familiar and slippery. As the FBI agents, Will Cobbs, Becca Blackwell, and particularly Pete Simpson come across as both intentionally and unintentionally abrasive – collectively, a spot-on, slightly hilarious depiction of straight American masculinity.

Unfortunately, the two unconventional psychological thrillers have just announced that they will be closing earlier than expected on November 14 (the original closing date was January 16). Catch them while you can.

Both HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

DANA H. / IS THIS A ROOM
Broadway, Play
Lyceum Theatre
Approximately 75 minutes (without an intermission)
Through November 14