The Wilma Theater presents Rajiv Joseph’s ‘Describe the Night’

What happened and what didn’t

Traversing 90 years of Soviet history, from 1920 to 2010, Describe the Night follows Isaac (EE-zahk) Babel, a Polish soldier and writer (brought to vibrant life by Ross Bechler), introducing the audience to a character who is both real and imagined, placed in situations both historically accurate and invented.

The very first scene sets the tone. Babel, serving in the army, meets a Russian officer, Nikolai, played with great gusto by Steven Rishard. Nikolai states, “Truth is what happened. Lies are what didn’t happen.” In response, Babel begins to tell him stories that he makes up on the spot. When Nikolai realizes that these stories are, according to his logic, lies—and not a stain on Babel’s honor but rather a mark of talent—he finds himself enchanted by the young writer and begins to laugh uproariously. A lifelong friendship begins, and the audience is on notice that the line between true and false might be thinner than we are comfortable with.

Timely comprehension

Playwright Rajiv Joseph describes the paly as “a fairy tale, a collection of myths.” To use that framework to question the notion of truth, the audience needs firm ground on which to approach the piece. The Wilma achieves that through projections of the date and time, always as all-caps white lettering on a plain black background. This and other simple yet powerful choices by lighting designer Thom Weaver help make this production a triumph.

Although the piece takes on 90 years of history, it does so in a nonlinear manner, with one event sparking another in much the way human memory works. Without rooting the audience in time, Describe the Night would be beyond comprehension.

The seats of judgment

The ensemble, who with a few notable exceptions play Nikolai’s relatives and family, are uniformly strong. Be forewarned that due to the story's time jumps, actors might play their own grandchild, grandparent, or themselves at different points. Of special note is Sarah Gliko’s second-act Yevgenia, the only character who completely looses the bonds of realism, providing the piece with the dark fairytale aspect that Joseph intends. Anthony Martinez-Briggs, as Feliks, is impressive enough that I wish he had been given the chance to play multiple roles as well.

Aside from an indicated upstage forest, the set, designed by Matt Saunders, consists of one room, with a chair, a table, and file boxes lining the walls. Multiple locations are created with the inventive addition or subtraction of a few small set pieces. As this production employs three-quarters staging, the audience lines the walls of the set from above, looking down on the action. This seating arrangement calls to mind a trial, heightening the stakes of the work by putting us, the audience, in the literal seats of judgment.

Our moment

If this play had been written and produced 10 years ago, it would have been seen as an attempt to explain the Soviet Union, its need to erase history, and the power inherent in endless upheaval that allows the state to produce competing narratives until the average citizen can no longer tell what actually happened from what didn’t.