By John Lyle Belden
“Tell me another lie!”
It turns out that this is the only way to tell an honest story during this last century in the Soviet Union and the republics that succeeded it. In Southbank Theatre Company’s season of Origins, we have “Describe the Night” by Rajiv Joseph exercising its dramatic license to describe the rise of a Russian leader, as well as some people who have roles in that story.
The play’s title comes from the notes in a diary kept by celebrated Jewish Russian writer Isaac Babel. He notes that the words each person uses in a description can be true, even if they don’t agree. Facts are affected by the observer.
In 1920 near Warsaw during the Russo-Polish War, Isaac (Kallen Ruston) writes of Russian officer Nikolai Yezhov (Ronn Johnston) killing a man in self-defense, as the Soviet press will report. The two meet, and in their conversation the matter-of-fact Nikolai admires Isaac’s way with a story, his ability to relate an absurdity with a straight face. Key to this prevarication is the diary, where private feelings are kept, and perhaps “lies” like the murder of a helpless old Pole burying his son.
In 2010 at Smolensk, Russia, a small jet crashes, killing all on board, including Poland’s president and other government officials. The dense fog, outdated airport technology, and witness accounts of the airplane striking the tops of trees as it approached too low seem to confirm the official report that this was an accident – but, in this place, how can anything so straightforward be true? Mariya (Brittany Magee), a Moscow reporter sent to do a simple feature profile, hides in a Smolensk car rental office with its clerk, Feliks (Jy’lerre Jones), fearing for her life. As she makes her escape, she finds herself in possession of an old diary.
Somehow connecting these points is Alex Oberheid as a handsome, well-dressed Russian official, born in Leningrad/St. Petersburg, with a current address in Moscow. Friends call him Vova, a common nickname for Vladimir.
We also meet Nikolai’s wife Yevgenia (Miranda Boyle), a clairvoyant and, like her ruthless husband, apparently difficult to kill – though official records have him executed by his fellow Soviets in 1940 while she died in an insane asylum. In 1989 in Dresden, East Germany, where Vova is assigned by the KGB, he encounters Yevgenia while spying on her granddaughter Urzula (Rachel Kelso). Be careful with that soup.
Directed by Paige Scott, a master storyteller in her own right, this entire play is an unreliable narrator, yet within it is the absolute truth. To understand these lives – including persons actually known to our world – it helps to understand the culture of secrets and shadows that dominate that part of the world, and not just those for whom espionage is a career. As current events and technology bring our country into this atmosphere of doublethink and selective truth, this sort of story becomes all the more important.
Oberheid has Vova project confidence throughout, even when he doesn’t feel it. In fact, it gets more interesting in the moments when he isn’t in complete control. Boyle has always been good at charming characters with don’t-give-a-damn attitude, and she is in her element here. To her, second sight is not a gift or curse, but a responsibility, with her prophesies as valid as anything else being said. Ruston maintains the stubborn idealism of Isaac throughout (having seen photos of Babel, I see the sense in casting a woman dressed androgynously). Johnston’s portrayal of Nikolai is deceptively friendly, though the sociopath within eventually comes through. (I looked up Yezhov. This play practically makes him a saint compared to history, but then, even monsters can contain multitudes.) Magee and Jones make good use of their limited time on the stage, and the characters get to put the final button on the plot.
Tracy Herring is assistant director, and Ariel Laukins stage-manages. Aric Harris skillfully clutters an excellent stage for hinting at conspiracies. No leeches were harmed.
In a world that’s hard to describe, and one must choose those words carefully, it’s no trivial matter to “Describe the Night.” Performances are Thursday through Sunday, Nov. 12-15, at Shelton Auditorium, 1000 W. 42nd St. (southwest corner of Butler University campus), Indianapolis. Get tickets a southbanktheatre.org.
