Dana H.
Lyceum Theatre
October 9, 2021 

Photo courtesy of Dana H.

Lucas Hnath’s Dana H. is a compilation of a series of interviews with his mother, Dana H.  She tells the story of how her work as a spiritual and psychological counselor was brutally hijacked for five year by someone under her care.  The performance contains the actual tapes from the interviews.  Deirdre O’Connell, the actor playing Dana H., fully embodies her characters while lip-syncing to the recordings.  Director Les Waters brings depth and texture to this unique and riveting theatrical experience, creating intense, jaw-dropping moments that are viscerally engaging. 

Deirdre O'Connell as Dana H.
Photo courtesy of Dana H.

Sitting in an arm chair center stage, Dana H. (played by Deirdre O’Connell) is open and calm.   She begins to tell of the work she does as a spiritual counselor, helping people cross over and comforting their loved ones and family members.  She reveals the number of death experiences she counsels in one week’s time.  She then asks the interviewer to do the math to calculate the number of these encounters she has experienced in over two decades of doing this work.  It is about this time that you realize that her calm and open demeanor covers an elevated level of detachment.  Dana H. then shifts into the story of Jim.  She was counseling Jim in his transition from prison to living independently.  He was medicated, due to psychological distress, broke from reality, and violently turned against her.  Dana H. tells the details of a five year ordeal under his brutal control.  His involvement with white supremacist gangs kept them on the run.  She was living in constant fear and danger.  An isolated act of kindness by a stranger was the one chance she had to escape and rebuild her life.  

Deirdre O'Connell as Dana H.
Photo courtesy of Dana H.

Deirdre O’Connell steps up in this very unique challenge of lip-syncing to seventy-five minutes of audio recordings.  Her performance is seamless.  Her emotional state is spot on connected to the recorded voice of Dana H.  The timing of her movements is rhythmically at one with the vocal patterns.  Every breath bonds her with the real Dana H.  It is a truly captivating performance.

 Lucas Hnath skillfully edited and compiled these very personal interviews to create an engaging piece of theatre.  The brutal journey is masterfully plotted.  Mr. Hnath far exceed any sense of accomplishment as he applies his writing skills to this horrific and emotional story to which he is so closely related. 

Dana H. is playing at the Lyceum Theatre, running in rep with Is This a Room.  Get a ticket!  It cannot be compared to anything you have experienced in the theatre thus far. 

Domenick Danza