The Night Alive

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The Night Alive is a 2013 stage play by Conor McPherson which won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play 2013–14 [1] The play premiered in London in 2013.

Conor McPherson is an Irish playwright, screenwriter and director of stage and film. In recognition of his contribution to world theatre, McPherson was awarded a Doctor of Literature Degree, Honoris Causa, in June 2013 by the University College Dublin.

Contents

Productions

The play premiered at the Donmar Warehouse in London, running from 13 June 2013 to 27 July 2013. [2] It then transferred to Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company, running from 30 November 2013 (previews) to 2 February 2014. The play was directed by Conor McPherson. [3]

Donmar Warehouse theatre in Covent Garden, London, England

The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977.

An Off-Broadway theatre is any professional venue in Manhattan in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than Off-Off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer than 100.

Atlantic Theater Company

Atlantic Theater Company is an Off-Broadway non-profit theater, whose mission is to produce great plays "simply and truthfully utilizing an artistic ensemble." The company was founded in 1985 by David Mamet, William H. Macy, and 30 of their acting students from New York University, inspired by the historical examples of the Group Theatre and Stanislavski. Atlantic believes that the story of a play and the intent of its playwright are at the core of the creative process.

It received positive reviews including from The New York Times [4] and Five stars from Time Out . [5] It also received Best Play nominations from the Lucille Lortel Awards, [6] the Drama Desk Awards, [7] and the Laurence Olivier Awards. [8]

<i>The New York Times</i> Daily broadsheet newspaper based in New York City

The New York Times is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership. Founded in 1851, the paper has won 125 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper. The Times is ranked 17th in the world by circulation and 2nd in the U.S.

<i>Time Out</i> (magazine) magazine

Time Out is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. Time Out started its publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 315 cities in 58 countries worldwide.

The Lucille Lortel Awards recognize excellence in New York Off-Broadway theatre. The Awards are named for Lucille Lortel, an actress and theater producer, and have been awarded since 1986. They are produced by the League of Off-Broadway Theatres and Producers by special arrangement with the Lucille Lortel Foundation, with additional support from the Theatre Development Fund.

The play was part of the 2015 Dublin Theatre Festival and was performed at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin. [9]

Following the success of the play in London and New York, further productions were scheduled for Chicago (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, 2014) [10] and Los Angeles (Geffen Playhouse, 2015). [11]

Steppenwolf Theatre Company theater and theater company in Chicago, Illinois, United States

Steppenwolf Theatre Company is a Chicago theatre company founded in 1974 by Terry Kinney, Jeff Perry, and Gary Sinise in the Unitarian church on Half Day Road in Deerfield and is now located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on Halsted Street. Its name comes from the novel Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse which original member Rick Argosh was reading during the company's inaugural production, And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little, in January 1974.

Original cast

The original cast at The Donmar in London [2] and Off-Broadway at The Atlantic:

Plot

The play is set in the drawing room of an Edwardian house in Dublin which is now a bedsit, inhabited by fifty-something, Tommy. He rents the room from his Uncle Maurice who lives upstairs. Tommy's friend, Doc, also sleeps in the room and helps Tommy doing odd jobs and moving things around with Tommy's van. None of these men is currently in any kind of relationship and they all scrape by from day to day amid the junk-filled squalor of the house.

One night Tommy rescues a young prostitute called Aimee from a beating on the street. He brings her home to get her cleaned up and she ends up staying. A tentative friendship develops between Tommy and Aimee and indeed between Aimee and the other men in the house over the following weeks. Trouble crashes into their lives however when Aimee's ex-boyfriend, Kenneth, comes looking for her.

Critical reception

While, on the surface, the play seemed to avoid the supernatural subject matter McPherson is famed for, critics attributed much of the play's power to an underlying spiritual dimension. Ben Brantley wrote of the first London production:

"As writer and director, Mr. McPherson has planted in our minds a subliminal awareness of more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in any philosophy. By its end the play pulses with the possibility of redemption, if I may use a much-abused word. I do mean only the possibility; but even that nebulous hope kindles a glow, both warming and chilling, you rarely experience at the theatre." [12]

David Cote wrote in Time Out of the production in New York:

"The beauty of McPherson’s writing is that peripheral, shimmery weirdness, the tug at your sleeve of something so otherworldly and luminous, you can’t bear to turn around and look. What’s going on? A spellbinding and absolutely gorgeous new play by one of the true poets of the theater, that’s what." [5]

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References

  1. ↑ "New York Drama Critics Circle Awards" The Guardian
  2. 1 2 " 'The Night Alive' at Donmar Listing" donmarwarehouse.com
  3. ↑ Purcell, Carey. "American Premiere of Conor McPherson's The Night Alive, Starring Jim Norton and Ciarán Hinds, Extends Run" playbill.com, 19 December 2013
  4. ↑ Brantley, Ben. "Reviews, London" The New York Times, July 2, 2013 (requires subscription)
  5. 1 2 Cote, David. Time Out, 12 December 2013
  6. ↑ "2014 Nominees" lortelaward.com
  7. ↑ "2014 Nominations" deadline.com, 2014
  8. ↑ "Olivier Awards, 2014" olivierawards.com, accessed 24 April 2015
  9. ↑ "'The Night Alive' (Dublin Theatre Festival and Lyric Theatre Belfast): Sept 22 - Oct 4, Gaiety Theatre" dublintheatrefestival.com, accessed 9 April 2016
  10. ↑ "'The Night Alive' September 18, 2014-November 16, 2014 steppenwolf.org, accessed 9 April 2016
  11. ↑ "'The Night Alive', February 3 - March 15, 2015" geffenplayhouse.com, accessed 9 April 2016
  12. ↑ Brantley, Ben. "London Theater Journal. 'Heaven and Earth'" The New York Times, 2 July 2013
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