Maybe forgetting yourself once in a while is a good thing. From Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies (Dinner with Friends, Collected Stories) comes a stirring new play about the fragility of memory and the passage of time. Late on a summer night, in a field on their Kentucky farm, a long-married couple, George (Birney) and Em (Emery), have come to watch a lunar eclipse. As the seven stages of the celestial phenomenon unfold, the two sip bourbon and reflect on land and legacy, and children and dogs. But as more and more is revealed, they realize they are as much a mystery to each other as the heavens above. Lunar Eclipse is the funny, moving, universal story of a couple reckoning with the time they’ve spent on earth and the time they have left.
Although Birney and Emery plant the heart and humor of Lunar Eclipse, Margulies struggles to craft a momentum of highs and lows as the couple unravel their regrets. In particular, dour introspections, such as George admitting he cares for his dogs more than his late adopted son or Emery sacrificing her city upbringing for married life on the farm, feel smoothed over.
Despite the unmatched skill of Birney and Emery, who both infuse Margulies’ words and his silences with layers of meaning, the ultimately too-slight “Lunar Eclipse” feels as inconsequential as its titular subject. Just as George is disappointed that the clouds muted his chance to the view the eclipse’s colorful “Japanese Lantern” effect, audiences may leave the theater feeling that the play was also a missed opportunity for something more spectacular.
| 2025 | Off-Broadway |
Second Stage Theater Production Off-Broadway |
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