Night Sky

Night Sky, a play by Susan Yankowitz, tells of an intellectual woman whose life comes to a crashing divergence with the onset of aphasia as a result of an accident. While the process the woman, brilliantly played by Jordan Baker, goes through is academically interesting, the writing is, in a way, naïve in terms of theater. There is quite ordinary familial interaction both before and after the accident as the main character goes through the slow, painful process of rehab. The writer knows a lot about science, and there are lectures from a professor, but as a play, it is interesting and laborious at the same time. Everything seems overdone, including too much time spent on the work towards recovery of a minor character (well played by Dan Domingues, who also is fine in several other small roles) and a dense daughter with simplistic, ordinary domestic problems. Night Sky, although well directed by Daniella Topol, with excellent lighting by Peter West on an imaginative simple set by Cameron Anderson, seems to be a play for an audience of therapy students. The extraordinary performance by Jordan Baker in the role of a lifetime, which she fulfills beautifully, would be a reason to see this play. Otherwise, too much science and not enough drama.