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NIGHT IS A ROOM Send This Review to a Friend
Naomi Wallace’s play “Night is Room,” a Signature Theatre presentation, is one of those works that is difficult to write about without spoilers that would take away discoveries for those yet to experience it. Those discoveries are what is right and wrong about the drama. So forgive the dancing around.
For a start, beware about bestowing surprises. Liana, played with sophistication, panache and fervor by Dagmara Dominczyk, lives in Leeds, England, and has been in long marital relationship with Marcus, played by Bill Heck. Marcus was given up at birth and his adoptive parents are both dead. Presumably happy and sexually fulfilled, Liana and Marcus have a grown daughter.
Liana is preparing a surprise on the occasion of Marcus’s 40th birthday. She wants to unite him with his birth mother, Doré, whom she has located and whom we meet in the play’s opening. Portrayed effectively by Ann Dowd, at age 55 Doré is matronly, frumpy and has long worked in housekeeping jobs. She is reluctant at first to have the encounter, although, as revealed, she has longed for her son, whom she gave away when she was 15. But an agreement is struck.
What happens as a result of the encounter is a shocker. I did not find the turn the play takes as very believable. To say why would give the plot away. But trauma breaks loose, and while it is entertaining to observe, there is the credibility strain.
The second act begins with yet another surprise, and what unfolds is a fraught situation. As it develops, even though the acting continues to be commanding, one is hard-pressed in the believability department. Also, matters are drawn out so that the play seems much longer than its two hours, including intermission.
The ultimate verdict: This is a well-staged outing under the direction of Bill Rauch, with a plot that impresses at first, then veers into a shocking situation and further results that, while attention grabbing, strain credibility on various counts. Think of it as modern Greek tragedy, courtesy of an ambitious playwright with acute writing skills and willing to go for broke. At the Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 West 42nd Street. Reviewed November 28, 2015.
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