Chuck Hinman: This is The Public’s Radio, I’m Chuck Hinman. Artscape producer James Baumgartner is with me this morning. We have two plays to talk about this week.
James Baumgartner: “Describe the Night” is at the Gamm Theatre in Warwick, and “The Inheritance” is at Trinity Rep in Providence.
Hinman: Let’s start with “Describe the Night.” It takes place over 90 years with locations in Russia, Poland, and East Germany. It bounces around in time, following the lives of eight people connected by historical events like the Soviet-Polish war that followed World War I; Stalin’s “great purge” just before World War II; and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Baumgartner: The play opens in 1920 in the Soviet-Polish war, as Soviet soldiers Isaac and Nikolai become friends. Isaac is a writer, and he introduces army captain Nikolai to the idea that you don’t need facts to tell a story–you can just make it up.
Hinman: This becomes a major theme in the play as history is rewritten again and again, and the facts become more slippery. Nikolai becomes the head of the Soviet secret police and helps to carry out Stalin’s great purge. But later he’s erased by the purge. There’s also a character inspired by Vladimir Putin who creates his own mythology by continually repeating a lie until it is the accepted truth.
Baumgartner: “Describe the Night” brings the past into the present, and certainly resonates with the disinformation age we’re in now. There are many threads to the story, but it falls short in weaving those threads together. A great performance could make up for that, and there’s some wonderful subtlety from Donnla Hughes as Yevgenia, but some of the other performers seem to rely on yelling in order to convey emotion.
Hinman: It’s like one note of emotion. They hit that level and just sustain for too long, and it kind of tires you out. But the play did leave me with much to think about and I’m still trying to unravel all the threads.
Baumgartner: We also recently saw part one of “The Inheritance” at Trinity Rep. It’s inspired by Howard’s End, a 1910 novel by E.M. Forster. This play takes place in the 2010s in New York City among a group of gay men mostly in their late-20s and early 30s. E.M. Forster himself is one of the characters in the play, as he helps the young men tell their stories.
Hinman: Walking into the play, we knew it was going to be three hours and 15 minutes long, with two intermissions. That certainly sounds daunting, but the performance really moves along with laughter, love, conflict, and a little bit of raunch.
Baumgartner: There are often 10 actors on stage at one time and the dialogue whips around as we get glimpses into their lives. The play focuses on the relationship between Eric Glass (played by Jack Dwyer) and Toby Darling (played by Taavon Gamble). The two performers stand out as they show the complexity of their relationship developing while they deal with professional success and personal trials.
Hinman: Stephen Thorne plays a dual role as Morgan – the stand-in for E.M. Forster and Walter Poole, an older gay man who lives in the same building as Eric and Toby. At one point, Walter tells his story of experiencing the AIDS crisis in New York in the 80s and 90s. Up to this point, there had been a great deal of action on the stage, but for this monologue, it’s just Walter sitting in a chair, telling his story to Eric. It’s so well written and so well performed that I was completely mesmerized.
Baumgartner: It’s a long monologue, but I have no idea how long because I was completely enchanted by Thorne’s performance. It’s a very special moment. And this is the inheritance of the title, the struggles that one generation goes through to make life better for the next.
Hinman: Both of the plays we saw are hugely ambitious, they covered decades and generations. If you want an epic story of the manipulation of history that resonates with the news of today, you can see “Describe the Night” at The Gamm.
Baumgartner: And if you want a grand story of generations of gay men going back to E.M. Forster, you have “The Inheritance” at Trinity Rep.
Hinman: And that was just part one of “The Inheritance.” Part two starts soon.
Baumgartner: I can’t wait to see it.
An interesting aside from a listener: Andrew Burnap, who grew up in South Kingstown and graduated from URI, won a best actor Tony award in 2021 for his portrayal of Toby in the Broadway version of “The Inheritance.” He was the first to play the role in its original London production.
The Gamm Theatre and Trinity Repertory Company are underwriters of The Public’s Radio. We make our coverage decisions independent of business support.
