Tommy (Stephen Yoakam) and Aimee (Sara Richardson) -PHOTO CREDIT: Heidi Bohnenkamp
The Night Alive – Jungle Theatre
By Bev Wolfe
The Jungle Theatre is closing out its 2015 season with the production of Conor McPherson’s play The Night Alive. This is the first play that I have seen by the acclaimed McPherson and The Night Alive won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play 2013-14. Although this play may not be for everyone, it is an intriguing play and is one I am still trying to decipher days after seeing it.
Director Joel Sass does a masterful job of casting and directing the actors in this play about losers in life who muddle through both loneliness and violence with optimism. Tommy is a man in mid-life who is estranged from his wife and teenage children. He finds himself living in the disheveled bottom level of the house owned by his Uncle Maurice who lives upstairs. Tommy has a friend named Doc, who is both on disability and homeless, so he either stays with his sister or with Tommy on a spare cot. Tommy and Doc get by doing odd jobs and renting out Tommy’s van for deliveries. It becomes clear that Tommy is a person who needs to be needed and he is at his best when he is helping others. Although Doc has even less going for him than Tommy, he never seems down and out even after being brutally beaten. Finally, Maurice who is upset at the elements that Tommy brings into his life, ultimately realizes he also needs Tommy to get by.
This meager existence is interrupted when Tommy comes across a young woman named Aimee, possibly a prostitute, being beaten. He brings the bleeding Aimee home to help her clean up and, in the most platonic way possible, has her stay the night. Tommy and Aimee form an attachment which takes an abrupt turn when an unexpected act of violence occurs not once but twice. Aimee eventually disappears, but Tommy and those around him return to a post-Aimee existence with a greater air of overall optimism.
Stephen Yoakam provides a commanding performance as the charming Tommy. Yoakam not only dominates the production, but he also manages to maximize the available humor in each scene. Despite her demure character, Sara Richardson manages to hold her own against Yoakam in her deft portrayal of the needy Aimee who brings a great deal of baggage to Tommy’s life. Patrick Bailey plays the hapless Doc with a hopeful attitude. Martin Ruben in the supporting role of Maurice brings a hard reality to the role of an elderly person who must cope with his need to rely upon those he otherwise would not trust.
Those attending should be prepared for the fact that, like life, they may never figure out what the show is really about. But they can take heart in the optimistic tone that the show ends on.
THE NIGHT ALIVE
By Conor McPherson
Directed by Joel Sass
November 6-December 20, 2015
The Jungle Theater
2951 Lyndale Av. S., Minneapolis
Tickets: $28-$48
Box office: 612-822-7063 or www.jungletheater.com
Tuesdays – Saturdays at 10:00 p.m.
Sundays at 2 p.m.
Showing through Dec. 20th.
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