Review: YOU STUPID DARKNESS! at 21ten Theatre

How do we carry on when everything is falling apart? In YOU STUPID DARKNESS!, Sam Steiner's funny and touching dramedy now running at 21ten Theatre, four volunteers spend their Tuesday nights answering calls at Brightline, a listening service for people who need someone to tell them everything is going to be okay. The catch? Nothing is okay.

An environmental apocalypse has occurred. The weather forecast: black clouds, sometimes black clouds raining. To go outside, you need a gas mask. But life goes on anyway, because what else are you going to do?

Frances (Denise Hoey), the manager, is pregnant, an act of defiant optimism when most people have given up. Angie (Angie Tennant) is warm and empathetic with callers, but lonely, needing the conversations as much as anyone on the other end of the line. Joey (Shane Ruyle) is 17, fresh at Brightline, trying to figure out what his life might look like. Jon (Chris Brantley) is a cranky fortysomething who also needs the connection, though he would never admit it.

The office is plastered with inspirational posters, and each week a new word gets projected onto the screen: "Generosity," "Perseverance," "Optimism." Seemingly impossible goals when the world is literally crumbling around them. The office is too. Week by week, it falls apart, and the volunteers oscillate between trying to fix things and just accepting the inevitable.

This is an office comedy where darkness seeps in at the edges. They talk about their lives, throw a ball around, and practice taking difficult callers, as sirens, toxic weather, and other signs of decline create a constant low hum of dread. But the heart of the play beats loud and clear: we survive the worst by showing up for each other, even when it seems pointless.

The cast is wonderful. Angie Tennant in particular delivers a fabulous performance, making the character Angie’s loneliness palpable, her need for connection heartbreaking. The intimate space of 21ten Theatre is perfect for this kind of raw, human story telling, and set designer Julianne Bodner maximizes the potential of this tiny venue.

YOU STUPID DARKNESS! is about the human capacity for tenacity, about finding connection in the most dire circumstances, about keeping calm and carrying on. It reminds us that when everything falls apart – and it will, in one way or another – the only way through is together.

YOU STUPID DARKNESS! runs at 21ten Theatre through March 1. Details and tickets here.