![A person and person sitting on a bench
Description automatically generated](Just-Another-Day-JP_files/image001.png)
Dan Luria, Patty McCormack (Photo by Russ Rowland)
Just
Another Day
By Julia Polinsky
A gentle, sadly sweet cross between Waiting for Godot
and many another older-person-family-drama, Dan Lauria's Just Another Day presents two
characters, Man (Luria) and Woman (Patty McCormack), on a perfectly lovely park
bench with a nicely pretty streetlamp and a gently blue sky.
The mood is benign, so when
Man and Woman point out that they don't know where they are, how they got
there, if they know each other (or slept together last night), or what is
happening, it's puzzling, rather than painful; the bland beginning somehow
doesn't hurt as much as it could. Which is a good thing, because the play deals
with the problem of elderly people with dementia, which can hurt. A lot.
Luria's
difficult play can be hard to watch, partly because the disconnection between
the two actors is so palpable, and that's just not very interesting. Even for
such accomplished actors as Luria and McCormick, it can be challenging to make
such lost personalities interesting and engaging, but they do. Luria is so
charming, he shines; McCormack is excellent, particularly in the second act;
she deserves better material.
![A person holding a book
Description automatically generated](Just-Another-Day-JP_files/image002.png)
Patty
McCormack (Photo by Russ Rowland)
That
disconnection, though, must be intentional. It's a portrait of two elderly
people with memory issues. When they bicker with each other, or as they play
with words, or cry, they are unable to connect. An off-stage bell rings, at certain
times; it's hard to understand why, nor is that question cleared up when the
bell ringer appears for a bow at the end of the show.
The
first act feels remarkably surreal without being weighty or significant, merely
disjointed. It gradually becomes clear that Man and Woman are dementia
residents of a nursing home, trying to figure out what happened, and how they
lost their memories. For some reason, they each have a book about their former
lives, most likely as memory prompts.
![A person and person sitting on a bench
Description automatically generated](Just-Another-Day-JP_files/image003.png)
Dan
Luria, Patty McCormack (Photo by Russ Rowland)
Those
books come into play in the second act; they do indeed prompt memories of his
life as a comedian and hers as a writer. Apparently, they were a team. They do
indeed have a shared past (although we never find out if they slept together
last night). They do what they can to re-enact the jokes, the songs, the
stories. The book is a tool to help them connect; fortunately, the skits and
jokes and word games also engage the audience. That second act helps Just
Another Day a lot.
With the sweet blandness of
scenic and lighting design from
Andy
Evan Cohen and Joan Racho-Jansen,
and Bettina Bierly's
costume design, not to mention the slow pace of Eric Krebs's direction, it's as if the play were
deliberately trying not to hurt anyone or provoke any huge emotion. Perhaps
that's the goal, especially since there's talk of making Just Another Day
a fundraiser for regional theaters. It's easier to make that goal a reality if
nobody feels too much. Just Another Day definitely hits that mark.
Just
Another Day
Theater 555, 555 West 42nd St (between 10th &11th Ave)
Through June 30