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Likerunboyrun, it feels plodding, muffled, the sharpness of its intention dulled by its craft.
Its easy to see how high the stories stakes are, but much harder to feel them.
But, as an agitated Disciple (Chike Johnson) keeps insisting, Something lives in here with us.
Disciple frets, freaks, and rages.
Abasiama burrows and broods.
Udofia isolates her characters they dont so much engage in dialogue as in ongoing monologues with interruptions.
And, Udofia never does something once or twice when she can do it on a continuous loop.
InrunboyrunandIn Old Age, she keeps ideas going long after theyve worn out their welcome.
Theyre obvious answers to the dramatic questions Udofia is asking, and so their shelf life is dangerously short.
In both plays, we can see the bombs coming long before theyre dropped.
The bright spots in the shows are the actors.
But the scripts have got their own baggage.
When its over, it practically evaporates.
The plays title refers to the day when five friends regularly gather for a book group.
Tonight is Maries (Sadie Scott) first time with the group.
She and Jill are roommates and are hosting the floating get-together.
Downstairs, theres Bill (Maurice Jones), another sensitive, awkward soul.
It takes a long time to get there, though.
First, we need to spend an evening with five prickly, aspiring friends (friends?
What do the spontaneous dance-a-thons mean?
Theyre quirks and flourishes rather than deeply embedded features of the plays DNA that contribute to its greater meaning.
Why specifically Alice as our narrator?
Whats her relationship to the dances, which she never joins?
The play skates by these questions.
Perhaps in a certain sense true to its human subjects, it often feels like a Snapchat.
It doesnt delve, and it doesnt stick.
Jones navigates Bills creative strangeness, his good intentions, and his hangdog hunger for love beautifully.
Her Marie becomes reckless and mean in her lack of trust.
In fact, worse than that, were insignificant.
Weve inherited shit, and our only response is to smell it and go Ew.
Thats why we cling onto fiction its the only original thing in our lives.
Is Thorne indicting or mourning for millennials, or both?
It fizzles and fades, content to leave us with right where we started.
At the end, on stage and off, everyone simply packs up and heads for home.
RunboyrunandIn Old Ageare at New York Theatre Workshop through October 13.
Sundayis at the Atlantic Theater Company through October 13.
