Truth is a lie; Lies Are Truth

Describe the Night

Fascinating, intriguing, gripping and often funny—these adjectives all appropriately describe Rajiv Joseph’s mesmerizing new drama, now playing in-the-round at Steppenwolf’s Ensemble Theater. The story is an intricately layered labyrinth of characters, locales and historical periods. Some of the people are real, while others are purely fictitious. The story, that bounces around through time and place, is sometimes humorous, frequently gripping and truly mind-boggling. Rajiv Joseph (the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo”) spins a story that illuminates the ethical enigma that is modern Russia.

On a cold night during the Polish-Russian War of 1920, a Jewish writer named Isaac Babel, who’s working as a wire service journalist, is making some entries in his personal journal. He meets Nikolai Yezhov, a Russian Cavalry Captain. The man’s offhand demeanor belies the violence this man is capable of perpetrating. As the play progresses Nikolai will rise in the ranks to become the head of Stalin’s Secret Police. Babel asks Nikolai to describe the night so the writer can compare their observations. He tells Nikolai that both of their commentaries would be valid, but Babel asks whether one description would be truer than the other? 

This activity taking place at the beginning of the play illustrates the theme that permeates every moment of Joseph’s play. The author is asking the audience to consider the honesty between what one observes and what is the actual truth. This turns into a thoughtful debate between fact versus fiction, between the validity of a subjective memoir compared with an objective historical report. Isaac Babel’s diary of personal thoughts, contemplations and vivid descriptions will figure into every scene of the play. Each of the characters possesses the weathered journal at some point in this story that begins in 1920, but jumps back and forth between 1937, 1940, 1989 and finally to 2010. The play spans the continent, from Poland to East Germany to Russia and back again. One’s perception of history and how it’s depicted sways people’s opinions. This is the idea that wafts through Rajiv Joseph’s entire play. It’s the playwright’s observation that truth is a lie; but that lies are truth. We see this as we observe Stalin gain ground in his reign of terror and then, later, as we watch Putin’s rise to power (Vladimir is nicknamed Vova in this play and, by the end he’s become the Russian President in 2010).

Steppenwolf company member Austin Pendleton has pulled some great performances from his seven talented actors. This is truly an ensemble cast, the kind of company for which this theatre has become famous. He’s paced Rajiv Jacob’s epic saga with a slow and steady rhythm, allowing the theatergoer to absorb the shifts in time and place and to understand the changes each character undergoes. As relationships change, Pendleton’s gentle pacing allows the audience time to go with the flow of each personality. The director makes excellent use of the entire arena venue, staged upon Collette Pollard’s lovely polished floor setting that’s sparsely adorned with a few props, a table and some chairs. From below the center of the stage an elevator emerges, from time to time. The play’s shifting time, place and tone is augmented by Keith Parham’s fine lighting design. And Raquel Adorno’s character-appropriate costumes help delineate each personality.

This brilliant, uniformly excellent cast is a dream. James Vincent Meredith is a gentle, artistic soul as Isaac Babel. His passion for art grows more intense as the story progresses. Yasen Peyankov is both humorous and commanding as Nikolai. This gifted actor demonstrates an ability to transform his character from a younger military man to an elderly citizen with just a shift in his posture and some costume effects. Glenn Davis is simply frightening as Vovo, a man driven by power. He’s especially scary in his interrogation scenes with the always excellent Caroline Neff, as Mariya, and with Charence Higgins, terrific as young Urzula. Sally Murphy is profoundly moving as Nikolai’s adventurous wife, Yevgenia. She becomes a zombie after being imprisoned in an asylum; then she ages into a humorous grandmother who makes a strange kind of soup. And last, but certainly not least, Steppenwolf newcomer Jack Cain creates a sound character in his portrayal of Feliks. He plays a young Polish man working at a car rental facility whom we see for only a few moments early in the play. However, Cain returns in the final scene to solve a mystery and tie up all the loose ends with Ms. Neff’s character.

This play, indeed, this whole production, is peppered with so many intricate characters and exciting, hard-to-forget moments. The much-welcome humor of this story comes as unexpectedly as the gut-wrenching brutality and terror. There are a few scenes especially difficult to watch and hard to forget: When Nikolai burns Isaac’s entire life of work; when Vovo terrorizes and torments Urzula as she’s trying to escape oppression; when Yevgenia and Isaac are reunited in a mental ward; and when an unspeakably gross soup is served and eaten by three of the characters. But Rajiv Joseph’s moving drama is three hours of superb performances, riveting storytelling and a profound examination of how truth is a lie, but lies are truth.           

Recommended

Reviewed by Colin Douglas

Presented March 2-April 9 by Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 1646 N. Halsted St., Chicago.

Tickets are available in person at the theatre box office, by calling 312-335-1650 or by going to www.steppenwolf.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.