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In my experience, its extremely easy, replies the 21st-century human being.
A storm is coming and a battle.
The stakes are cosmic, willful annihilation is at hand, and Dionysus be praised!
The raucous, wily god of agriculture, wine, and song and theater, of course would approve.
And thats lucky, because that very god is the star of Georges play.
announces Dionysus, in the overwhelmingly charismatic person of Becca Blackwell, asHurricane Dianebegins.
This god doesnt beat around any bushes: Shes here to plant them instead.
(Ill follow suit here.)
You know your own story, she tells us bluntly, with neither malice nor pity.
You started to settle for ecstasy knock-offs: Creature comforts.
And at a certain point, I just stopped putting myself out there.
But the climate clock is ticking, and she cant afford to leave Earth in the hands humans anymore.
Blackwell is immediately and utterly arresting onstage.
Being seen by a person who can really see is a powerful thing.
As the four women who people the New Jersey suburb whereHurricane Dianetakes place will soon discover.
Diane has chosen to begin her climate-saving revolution in Monmouth County.
Theres Carol (Mia Barron): neat, forceful, HGTV-obsessed, and deeply unhappy.
Critics, myself included, sometimes use the word sitcom in a pejorative sense when writing about a play.
So, let me tell you what time it is.
Despite Dianes lush word pictures of landscapes reinvigorated with organic joy, shadows are pressing in on all sides.
An all-consuming force of annihilation, slowly decimating the edges of the world.
The existence of the Nothing is the horrifying revelation of childhood.
The horrifying revelation of adulthood is that we created it.
And Georges play is horrifying.
But it wouldnt be half as much so if it werent so funny, too.
Playing the New Yorkiest of the characters, Beck jumps nimbly between smart satire and real pathos.
Not, thats the guy whose string-cheese wrappers I pull from between the couch cushions.
And then theres Carol.
Carol the comfort addict.
Staging ecstasy is a hell of a challenge how did those Greeks do it?
Hurricane Dianeis at New York Theatre Workshop through March 10.
