Morning Sun

By Simon Stephens, Directed by Lila Neugebauer

Off Broadway, Play

Runs to 12.18.21

Manhattan Theatre Club

131 West 55th Street

Bottom Line: The stream of consciousness style play begins as a trickle, slowly picking up speed to become a tidal wave of raw and deeply moving theatre

When “Stream of Consciousness” is used in storytelling it can often take some time to get used to. Most live performances don’t necessarily include an audible narrative of thoughts and feelings with the progression of the play, however in Simon Stephen’s Morning Sun, all three actors engage in this river of the seen and unseen. The central character is Charley, played by a masterful Edie Falco. Accompanying her are Blair Brown and Marin Ireland, both of whom deftly embody different people who have interacted with Charley, effortlessly switching from parent, to child, partner, friend, etc. and occasionally functioning as a greek chorus of her inner psyche. Often finishing each other's sentences with interjections of what was thought or felt at the time, the trickle of their words begin to slowly flow into the story of Charley’s life. 

A born and bred New Yorker, much of the beginning of the play functions as a love letter to the city, centering around Greenwich Village, the famed downtown neighborhood. Insider knowledge of local haunts abounded to the delight of the New York audience, including nods to the ghost at Cherry Lane and drinks at the White Horse Tavern. While pleasant, the story of Charley’s childhood coupled with an unconventional theatre style felt challenging to adjust to. It was when Charley moved into parenthood that the play began to pick up steam. 

Although the production stars a cast of famed theatre actors whose performances are a masterclass in acting, there is nothing glamorous or sensational about the characters on stage. The people, usually female, are ordinary women living ordinary lives, working in mundane positions in unenviable jobs. But it is in these ordinary moments that the production consistently transcends from the banal into the magnificent. The physical decline of an older family member, the scathing insults from a critical parent, the day a partner becomes violent, the feelings of inadequacy as a parent. All of the personal stories which feel so unique to an individual proved to be universally relatable, as scores of audience members audibly gasped and wept with an empathy that felt palpable. The Aids Crisis, September 11th and the many events which define New York City bring a much needed urgency that builds the play to a dramatic fever pitch. While Morning Sun has a slow and quiet ascent, its sunset is truly astonishing.