Nobody’s quite sure if there has ever been a dinner party quite like this, and yet, this dinner party is quintessentially like every other dinner party that has ever been. Epiphany, a new play by Brian Watkins, now showing at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. So come, and gather round the table, as the snow softly falls out in the night, this is going to be an uncanny evening as before its even begun, the guest of honor is missing, something that is very out of sorts for their character, and now the other guests are becoming unmoored, will there be enough wine, or goose, or time to fend off the long-neglected questions that now haunt their souls?
Eight guests arrive for dinner, but they don’t really know what they are supposed to be doing here, they are all familiar with their host, the warm, mothered, and eccentric Morkan. But have they all met each other before? “You don’t age!” one arrival exclaims. “We’ve actually never met,” comes the reply. Then, they are thrown even more when Morkan insists that they all surrender their mobile phones for the evening.
Perhaps the host can shed some light on the occasion? “I have no idea what Epiphany is,” Morkan confesses, undimmed in her enthusiasm for the forgotten traditional holiday. But when the guest of honor, is yet to arrive, the group becomes unmoored, and craves answers. And the snow keeps falling faintly through the universe. Or at least through the high window behind the zig-zagging staircase…
Imagined as a dinner party for addled intellectuals in a multi-cultural city, the characters allude to contemporary political crises while grappling with existential questions about the challenges of finding meaning in life, and the consequences of living in a world dominated by empiricism. “All minutes are not equal,” cautions one of the guests, making comparisons between what is present, and the past.
Epiphany is a new play by Juilliard Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow and a New Dramatists resident playwright, Brian Watkins, and is loosely based on the short story, ”The Dead” by James Joyce. It is directed by Tyne Rafaeli and set to open Off Broadway at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater with Scenic Design by John Lee Beatty, Costume Design by Montana Levi Blanco, Lighting Design by Isabella Byrd, and Original Music and Sound by Daniel Kluger. The cast Includes Francois Battiste, Marylouise Burke, Heather Burns, Jonathan Hadary, Omar Metwally, Colby Minifie, David Ryan Smith, C.J. Wilson, and Carmen Zilles. Epiphany had its premiere in 2019, at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, Ireland, under the direction of Garry Hynes, as part of Galway international arts festival.
Epiphany, also known as Theophany in Eastern Christian traditions, is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ and is traditionally held on January 6th. However, since 1970, some countries celebrate the holiday on the first Sunday after January 1st. Eastern Churches still following the Julian calendar observe the feast on January 19, because of the current 13-day difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
In Western Christianity, the feast commemorates the visit of the Magi, or Three Wise Men, to the Christ Child and is sometimes called Three Kings’ Day. In some traditions it is celebrated as Little Christmas, and the eve of the feast is celebrated as Twelfth Night, with the Monday after Epiphany known as Plough Monday. However, Eastern Christians, commemorate the holiday as the day of the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River.
Popular Epiphany customs include Epiphany singing, chalking the door, having one’s house blessed, consuming Three Kings Cake, winter swimming, as well as attending church services. It is customary in many countries, that households remove their Christmas decorations on, or before, Twelfth Night, and according to the tradition, those who fail to remember to remove their Christmas decorations on Epiphany Eve must leave them untouched until Candlemas, February 2nd, the second opportunity to remove them; failure to observe this custom is considered inauspicious.
Epiphany review – the meaning of ritual in a post-religious world.
“A highly strung dinner-party host looks set for an evening of disappointments in Brian Watkins’ new play for Druid Theatre. As eight guests arrive to Morkan’s (Marie Mullen) snowbound house on 6 January, they are unsure what is expected of them. Instructions to prepare a party piece have been ignored, and the guest of honor is missing. Worse, nobody can remember what the feast of the Epiphany is all about.
While Watkins’ starting point was James Joyce’s short story, The Dead, director Garry Hynes’ initially comic production is set in the present, on the outskirts of a multi-ethnic city. The conversations of the bewildered guests, who are played by a cast of Irish, American, and British actors, buzz with contemporary anxieties, from global heating to consumerism, emotional truth versus empirical verification.
Joyce’s depiction of a grief-tinged winter gathering is joined by other echoes, from Chekhov to Beckett to Tom Murphy. Led by a psychiatrist, Sam (Kate Kennedy), and a surprise guest, Aran (Grace Byers), these characters talk their way into philosophical smoke rings. Tasked with reinventing a tradition, they’re questioning what it means to commune for a ritual in a post-religious world.
Designer Francis O’Connor’s imposing three-story staircase creates an awareness of absences, which deepens as the party progresses. The origins in the Joyce story hang heavily over a late revelation, its emotional impact diluted by a sense of contrivance. Amid some underdeveloped characterizations, the most sparkling moments come whenever the ill-assorted guests react in unison, forming a Buñuelian chorus. When Morkan invites them to dance with each other, the disconnection they’ve been discussing is perfectly embodied in their aghast refusal to move from the dinner table. It’s an epiphany, of sorts.”
– By Helen Meany for The Guardian.