A play about sleepwalking, surveillance, fetishism, technology, lies, and love, Any Night is an exciting puzzle whose true nature is revealed piece by piece as deception and thrill are snapped into place against what looks very much like a sweet and linear romance.
The show begins with Anna (Medina Hahn) sleeping on a bed while audience members take their seats; the excitement commences soon after with a nightmare sequence of flashing lights, unsettling dancing, and a loud crash. Hahn doesn’t hold back in her performance, and she’s definitely mastered the eerie blank-eyed stare. Daniel Howard shows great versatility, and not just because he plays a number of different characters and shifts smoothly from one to another. His primary character, Patrick, is multi-faceted and duplicitous, and Howard convincingly portrays this complexity.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Any Night is its creative use of set, props, lighting, and sound. It’s compelling to watch how ingenuity allows this cast of two to present a fully-developed story with a wide range of emotional intensity. Throughout the show, transitions between the conscious, subconscious, present and past are fused into the action by the amazing use of a limited number of props. A simple set transforms a dozen times through the talent and timing of Arnold and Hahn. They don’t miss a beat, keeping up the suspense and driving the plot forward for all of the show’s 80 minutes. The lights and sound are also on point, providing important distinctions between sleep and wakefulness, truth and lies, and also just generally amping up the creepiness.
Most will feel scattered and confused for much of the show, but rest assured, it is intentional, and there is a payoff. In fact, the pieces fit together so well at the end that Patrick probably doesn’t need to summarize his motives and history as plainly as he does. Nevertheless, the disorder comes to an end, and the audience is left to contemplate the play’s emotional impact.
Any Night; Created by Daniel Arnold and Medina Hahn; Directed by Ron Jenkins. Laba Theatre at the 14th Street Y, 344 East 14th Street.