Stage Review - The Night is a Child @ The Pasadena Playhouse

The Night is a Child @ The Pasadena Playhouse - Now on Stage through 9.27

Full disclosure; the writer is a friend of mine who i have worked with several times and i ain't about to say something negative about his play. In fact i did several of the first public readings in New York and i did audition for this production and even my actors ego and profound sense that the producers made an enormous mistake by not casting me will not serve as permission to indulge my objectivity. so...I LOVED IT!!!

Here's the deal. It is a story that relies on suspense; a secret that is divulged at very selective intervals and -as you might imagine-for the greatest dramatic effect. And i know the story. So as the folks around me are being teased and lured , i am leaning back with a sense of detachment and security in my inside information. I kept myself engaged by counting the many ways that i would have been better in the role than the guy they cast.

Pathetic. Whatever.

So as the moment of truth approaches i start to re-engage and my curiosity about how the secret will play on those unwashed, uninformed patrons to my right and left starts to get to me. And then the moment happens and it works. Gangbusters.Maybe on the others but particularly and wonderfuly, on me. I got goosebumps and i knew it was coming.

The night i went the fires were burning in the hills above Pasadena. Humbling, they served as further reminder of my powerlessness over nature and the archetypes of mortality. Good storytelling is also humbling. Even if you know the ending.

- J. Kamal

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