A soldier (Nikolai) out for a walk, sees an author (Isaac) writing in a notebook. He asks what it is. Isaac explains if something isn’t true, that doesn’t make it pointless. Nikolai has trouble buying this. If it’s not factual it’s a lie. They talk awhile, and become friends. So begins Describe the Night, Rajiv Joseph’s strange, audacious exploration of language, coincidence, and the volatile nature of actuality. Mr. Joseph is a preeminent American playwright, very comfortable with grotesque, surprising narrative and ingenious composition. It’s a whirlwind. Episodes come at us quickly. Sets are practically animated! We might turn from whimsical to somber to disturbing.
Next we see a journalist (Mariya) who’s witnessed a bombing, by accident. She runs to a car rental, where she begs for a car. At first the Agent (Feliks) doesn’t grasp the urgency. But once she confides, he lends her a jalopy. In the next episode (time has passed) Nikolai invites Isaac to dinner where he introduces him to his wife (Yevgenia). Nikolai is overjoyed to see his old friend, and Isaac is too. Yevgenia and Isaac hit it off. A spark ignites. Not blazing but brilliant, just the same.
Describe the Night is set in the USSR, starting before the first revolution and well past the second, to the turn of the 20th century. It’s an ensemble piece of seven characters. Near as I can tell, there’s no multiple casting. The lives of the characters overlap. We see a character in subsequent episodes that now seems to be new, but not so. It might be age, it might be place, it might be history. Joseph may move humans as arbitrarily as God. An encounter on one occasion becomes a sea change in another. The drama doesn’t follow a straight chronological line. It hops. Even so, episodes fit, as the larger picture becomes clear.
Describe the Night is a gobsmack. You’re settled in, then another curveball bowls you over. As the story unfolds, you wonder if you can keep up. It’s not about a particular aspect of humanity, though the pieces coalesce in the sketchy nature of “truth”. The dances are jaunty and imaginative. They embody the chemistry of intersection. You think it’s a hodge-podge, a pastiche, then the full effect hits you, and incomparable shudders.
Director Becca Johnson-Spinos has orchestrated these nimble, glowy, engaged performers: Urzula (Marcy Bogner) Feliks (Chase Di lulio) Mariya (Whitney Renee’ Dodson) Nikolai (Connor McMurray) Vova (Bradford Reilly) Isaac (Dylan Weand) Yevgenia (Katelyn Yntema) with confidence and panache’. Costumes by Katherine Wright and sets by Kennedy Smith are striking and effective. Imagine the logistics of this intriguing mosaic, with its shifts, its pulse, its presence.
This is gestalt. This is phenomenal. This is theatre electrified.
Great thanks and gratitude to Outcry who granted me permission so late in the run.
Outcry Theatre presented Describe the Night by Rajiv Joseph. It played August 23-31st, 2025, at Theatre Three’s Norma Young Arena Stage.