Night & Day - Shines Bright and Delights!

Written by Tom Stoppard
Directed by James Bohnen

Night and Day is a refreshingly funny play set in post-Colonial Africa. After I got past the heavy English poppy-cock, which in my opinion is the equivalent of Ebonics, I really enjoyed this gripping and intelligent story about free speech and the press.

Set in a fictional African country on the verge of Civil War and run by a paranoid Idi Amin-esque type President, the story opens with a thrilling dream sequence where a photographer, George Guthrie (Jeff Cummings) is under attack by a helicopter hovering above and mistaking him for the enemy. This was a great way to set-up the debate that rages throughout this swift moving tale.

There’s something for everybody in Night & Day. Guthrie represents a radical with a very cynical disposition. He finds himself in the living room of a British ex-pat, Geoffrey Carson (David Barlow) who has a significant investment in both the country’s political fate and the cooper mine that has been in his family for a long time. Carson’s wife, Ruth (Linda Gillum) offers a consistent amount of comic relief as she infuses each scene with her very anecdotal, personal perspectives. Ruth, although privileged, finds herself lonely and turns to being a determined paramour to the men visiting her home and husband -- especially one young promising journalist, Jacob Milne (Greg Matthew Anderson). Anderson presents a youthful and naïve Milne set against the burnt out and frustrated preoccupations of a veteran newsman Dick Wagner (Shawn Douglass).

The story is about staying loyal to their ilk as newsmen, set against the desires of a fragile regime to suppress and manage the noise that is being broadcast across the world by men that are not citizens of their country.  The only role these men have in the midst of the political chaos is to exploit every lead, manipulating every corruptible tidbit about the opposition party into something a London housewife  would find fascinating.

I will tell you that I had probably the best laughs in a while watching Night & Day. It was smartly done and the acting was very enjoyable. As the saying goes, “what’s done in the dark will come to light” or some version of your choosing. Well, Night & Day shines bright and delights at the same time.
 

Larry D. Wayne
Larry@so-LAZE.com

Night & Day continues at Greenhouse Theater through October 31, 2010.