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

For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday

For Peter Pan on her 70^th birthday

Playwrights Horizons

August 25, 2017

 

Photo courtesy of Playwrights Horizons

Sarah Ruhl states that she wrote For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday as a gift for her mother on her 70^th birthday.  Presently in previews at Playwrights Horizons, this play is a gift of opportunity to all of us to ponder the occurrences in life that we cannot turn back from.  It is a chance to contemplate the circumstances that push us toward growing up, no matter our age.  Les Waters directs an amazing ensemble cast, creating a close-knit family of five adult brothers and sisters who face and accept the death of their father.  The script gives insight to each of their varied perspectives.  It is a tender and intimate story.

Ann (played by Kathleen Chalfant), John (played by Daniel Jenkins), Michael (played by Keith Redding), Jim (played by David Chandler), and Wendy (played by Lisa Emery) surround their father (played by Ron Crawford) on his death bed.  Time moves slowly until he finally lets go.  The brothers and sisters meet back at their childhood home to reminisce and toast their father and the memory of their other departed loved ones.  They realize they are now orphans.  The only one who admits she has not grown up is Ann, who played Peter Pan in her youth.  As they sleep in their childhood beds that night, the thought of flying off to Neverland overpowers them all.

Kathleen Chalfant, Daniel Jenkins, Keith Redding, & Lisa Emery
Photo courtesy of Playwrights Horizons

In the program notes, Ms. Ruhl talks about how she structured this play after Japanese Noh drama.  In part one the protagonist meets the ghost.  In part two they recognize the ghost.  In part three they embrace and dance with the ghost.  Since the play is in three scenes, this structure is clearly defined.  Being aware of it gives a deeper insight into the emotional and universal journey of the play.  Each member of the cast builds distinctive characters who unite during this solemn occasion to face the challenges and the changes ahead. 

For Peter Pan on her 70^th birthday runs on Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theatre through October 1.  It is Sarah Ruhl’s most personal play, and is touching on many levels.

Domenick Danza

The Glory of the World

The Glory of the World

Actors Theatre of Louisville

BAM Harvey Theatre

January 16, 2016

Photo courtesy of
Brooklyn Academy of Music

Sentiment leads to celebration, which leads to deep emotion, which leads to hurt feelings, which leads to anarchy… and it all stops for pizza.  That is the main action of Charles Mee’s The Glory of the World now playing at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) Harvey Theatre.  Direct from Actors Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival of New American Plays, this unique and original work directed by Les Waters is a celebration of the mysteries and complexities of our existence.

Photo courtesy of Actors Theatre of Louisville

The show begins when a solitary man silently enters, barefoot, and sits with his back to the audience in contemplation.  His thoughts are projected on the upstage walls of the set, which appears to be an empty warehouse.  As the man gets up to leave, the garage door upstage center opens and seventeen men walk downstage singing happy birthday to Thomas Merton (his 100^th).  He is toasted as a Buddhist, a Catholic, a Communist, a Bohemian, a monk… the list goes on and on throughout the play.  These men party with a sense of love, devotion, admiration, fierceness, and aggression that builds to an all-out brawl.  The action of one moment viscerally leads to another with a physicality that is humorous, musical, brutal, and metaphorical.  The amazing cast boldly commits with such a high level of vitality that you can’t help abandoning all thoughts and simply experience the journey of the moment.  Hence, the theme and purpose of the production, which is intuitively conceived, spiritedly constructed, and brilliantly delivered.  

Photo courtesy of Actors Theatre of Louisville

To have an original piece from the Human Festival presented in Brooklyn is a rare opportunity that needs to be taken advantage of.  The Glory of the World is an appropriate title for this production.  It runs at BAM Harvey Theatre through February 6th.  You have to experience it! 

Domenick Danza