All fugitives are an old tradition of higher education (and also, as I write this review in the evening time, let's be honest with journalism). All of the best kinds are not solo crumb sessions, but social events, where the time is time to bond through fatigue and despair, with the help of caffeine and junk food.
So if you're filming five university seniors, some meth, some secret groups, then throw them together into the pressure cooker in the form of a working session all night long, there should be plenty of extracurricular drama. But by the time the sun rises at “All Night,” which opened Sunday at Robert W. Wilson MCC Theatre Space, this overwhelming play feels as if it left many unfinished works on the table.
The play, written by Natalie Margolin, will be held in 2014 at a rural university in Pennsylvania. This is the final week at Johnson Ballroom, a 24-hour student lounge. Darcy (Kristin Froses) is an organized equipment seeking to become law school. The wealthy Tessa (Alyah Chanelle Scott) loves athlete clothing. And then Sentimental Jacqueline (Kathryn Gallagher) latches at the final moments of college before he sets out for the “real world.” And fashionable – or, depending on who asks, not fashionable, but lagging behind the party is the wild and quirky Wilma (the precious little red riding hood from Julia Lester, 2022's “In the Broadway Woods” revival), floral cowboy boots, pink and black knee-high, pink marble leggings, and comes fully included.
Students start working on some tasks, but not without some interpersonal revelation. And like Liz's missing Adderall pills and Tessa's lost credit card, their home has a mysterious loss of disappearance.
Margolin's script playfully replicates the habits and ratios of university friendship, especially among women.
However, because each has one or two discriminating traits, these young women lack the dimension to read much more than the typical college girl type. And “All Nights” fail to fully demonstrate the tenuity of these friendships, as they fail to establish a sense of bond that has developed over the past four years.
Jaki Bradley's direction could stand as pointed out further. With several instances in play, the group is split, with two or more characters sitting or spotlighting the sides of the main action. Two conversations sometimes take place in tandem, but appear alternately between the two, rarely suggesting a correlation or contrast between these simultaneous scenes.
Despite the limitations and direction of the script, the cast is outstanding. When Liz is the most unsettling and vulnerable, Li's performance pops out, and Lester quickly lights up the stage as Wilma, providing a much-needed dose of chaotic energy.
Wilson Chin's spacious and airy set design balances what the play lacks. Common university dorm chairs gather around a large wooden research table near a pillar recorded with notifications of things like “Spring Career Fair”, all evoking the island world of university life. But the open atmosphere of the Johnson Ballroom with panoramic windows suggests everything in the adult world.
“All Nights” inch towards some interesting themes. Different ways these young women see friendship. These relationships are defined by the way they unconsciously illuminated the gas and hurt each other. Rather than explaining to your friends, how much do you act as an enabler? But ironically, it reminds me of more interesting recent adolescent comedies, such as “Bottoms” and “The College Girls Sex Life,” featuring members of this cast. (Li from “bottoms” and Scott from “sex life”.)
As it stands, these characters fold under the weight of these themes. The play falls apart when you try to find a solution. The big reveal of one character is awkwardly deleted a few minutes before the curtain, inviting more questions than answers. And the final gesture of the play is the strong Morning Phosphor that brings these friends to an unknown future, and not only highlights the depths that the material lacks.
Through “every night game”, young women become dissatisfied and worried about productivity. It is how productive they were in their research, how productive or counterproductive they were in their personal lives, how a group of productive students are camping at the regular table. But for all the shared Adderall and quick research scenes in this play, “All Nights” has ultimately proven to be as unproductive as this group of students.
All Nighters
Until May 18th at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space in Manhattan. allnighterplay.com. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes.
