Caroline Neff and Jack Cain in Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s Chicago premiere of “Describe The Night”/Photo: Michael Brosilow
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There are lies, and there are damned lies.
There are lies told for art and lies told for power. In art, a lie (known as a story), can show what’s true. In politics, lies oppress, with stories invented to justify murder and lead people into war.
Steppenwolf Theatre’s “Describe the Night,” a play by ensemble member Rajiv Joseph running through April 9, is about these different kinds of lies. The story, which toys with Soviet history using both real and imaginary characters and events, doesn’t always make sense. But through sharp writing and impressive acting, the play reveals hard truths about fascism’s destructive power.
Yasen Peyankov and James Vincent Meredith in “Describe The Night”/Photo: Michael Brosilow
The play starts during the Polish-Soviet war of 1920, with two real historic figures—Jewish writer Isaac Babel and soldier Nikolai Yezhov—looking at the stars. Nikolai (Yasen Peyankov) doesn’t understand how Babel (James Vincent Meredith) can say one thing in his journalistic reports about the war and another thing in his personal journal. Isn’t there just one way to describe the night?
Nikolai goes on to become a king of lies, a secret police official under Stalin, and then the keeper of official records. In the Soviet Union, this means the manipulator of records—he wields his black marker like a sword.
Glenn Davis, Sally Murphy and Charence Higgins in “Describe The Night”/Photo: Michael Brosilow
The play jumps between the Stalinist purges, the start of glasnost and a plane crash that killed multiple members of the Polish government in 2010. A KGB agent, Vova (Glenn Davis), is Vladimir Putin. Stories are nested like a matryoshka doll and told by different characters in different ways—Babel is in love with Nikolai’s wife, Yevgenia (Sally Murphy), who gives birth to sexy Urzula (Charence Higgins), who has an affair with Vova, who interrogates journalist Mariya (Caroline Neff) and punky rental car clerk Feliks (Jack Cain). Each character gets to handle Babel’s diary, which acts as the story’s MacGuffin.
This mash-up works because of both the humor and terror of the situations and the skill of the actors, under the direction of Austin Pendleton. Davis’ Vova is a brutal thug with a little boy’s vulnerability that makes him even more terrifying. He has built a world of lies to protect himself. Murphy’s Yevgenia is both goofy and luminous—she mystifies with her fortune-telling, and a weird Polish soup. As Babel, Meredith is both civilized and passionate—an artist in a savage world. Peyankov portrays the villainous Nikolai as reasonable, good-humored, and even a little professorial, as he opens his comically long file drawer. He’s the sort of Stalinist you could drink vodka with, before he shoots you in the back of the head.
Joseph’s dialogue has a Slavic feel—funny, melancholy and absurd, as in the stories of Gogol and Kafka. At three hours, the show’s a bit long, but moves at a good pace—you don’t feel the time until near the end.
Glenn Davis and Yasen Peyankov in “Describe The Night”/Photo: Michael Brosilow
“Describe the Night” is set in Steppenwolf’s new in-the-round theater, which makes the audience feel like it’s spying on the action. Collette Pollard’s simple set features a shiny black floor that mirrors the characters, elaborate chandeliers, that cartoonish file drawer, and a cage that rises through a trap door. There’s a chilliness to it all that reflects the feel of the story.
The play was first produced in 2017, and Joseph started writing it three years earlier, before the last presidential administration and before Russia’s attack on Ukraine. It has proved prescient. As Yevgenia predicts, there will always be another war. And those in power will make up alternative facts to try to stay on top.
“Describe the Night” at Steppenwolf Theatre, 1646 North Halsted, (312)335-1650, steppenwolf.org. Through April 9.
