Describe the Night is a passion project for director Paige Scott. We asked her about the show and why it’s important right now. Below are her answers.
How did you first learn about Describe the Night and what was your initial reaction to it?
I became aware of it when it was a part of the Steppenwolf season in Chicago in 2023. I have a fascination with epic stories being told by small casts. I love revisionist history pieces and the stories revolving true life monsters before they became monsters fascinating. I got a hold of a script and fell in love.
Why is this play relevant right now?
With the conflict in Ukraine and the intrigue of Russia having hands in our own government, there is a lot of societal confusion to how we got to this moment in time as a culture. This play seemed to directly name the reason in a theatrical and accessible way.
What did you learn in your preparation for directing this play that was surprising or unexpected?
In the most disturbing of details, I was not expecting to understand Putin on such a human level. He and my mother are the same age. I can pinpoint what that post WW2 boomer life is like for a Midwestern 1950s girl in the United States. The post WW2 boomer life for him was living in a one bedroom that an entire family shared and starving. Russia and the US fought on the same side in WW2 yet only the US thrived after. Stalin would not allow the same economic boom. Of course he was going to grow up and resent the US under that kind of economic trauma. Make no mistake. The man is a monster, but I can see the makings of it and it makes sense.
How much of what’s portrayed in the play is factual?
Some of it has glimmers of the truth rearranged in an attractive package. You can’t say that any of it is real though.
One of the sound elements in the play that you’ve introduced is the desk bell. How does that function for you and what does it represent?
I am minimalist theatre maker so I typically find a singular location that can be anywhere and create a playscape from those ideas. The concept of the setting is an office space that has been drone attacked. Materials scattered. Some burnt. Some out of place. The bell remains. A call bell audibly signifies to me the sound of bureaucracy. You are waiting your turn. Which I think is a theme here. Are you waiting to make your rise? Waiting to die? The waiting after the bell is rung is terrifying.
If Russian culture feels foreign to people, are they going to be able to get into the story? Do you need to know a lot about Russia to enjoy the show?
I do not think you need to know about the full scale of Russian history to get something out of this. We have more in common than what we have been led to believe, I think. If you come in with a basic understanding of current events, you are ahead of the game.
America’s relationship with Russia has been evolving lately, to put it mildly. How does this show inform your thoughts about current events with Russia, the US, and Ukraine?
This play offers a revisionist view on why closing off an entire territory is pivotal to one person. It is revisionist. Not the truth. If real life were this play, it might be easier to understand, but it is not real life, so we are left with all kinds of questions.
Censorship and manipulation of reality/history come up in this play. What is at stake when that information is being censored and/or misrepresented? In other words, how does censorship and misinformation make an impact on these characters and this story?
I think in the world established in the play it [misinformation] starts to resemble actual life at its most bleakest of terms. 4 out of these 7 characters are based on real people, and because to me they are very real I am going to answer this question like they are. The censorship and manipulation impact them (and us as witnesses) most when we acknowledge the hard truth that we have allowed more liars to take power than truth tellers. Look at COVID deaths 6 years ago. Look at the Iran War now. Look at the genocide in Palestine. These people double down when confronted with facts rather than honoring the truth and wishing to collaborate on solutions. No one does that in this play. We seldom see it in real life and I think that is something we are craving at the moment.
How do the women characters in this play make an impact in the overall story?
The women in this play are strong, sly, opinionated, know who they are to their core, and are unshakable in ways that the men are not. These women survive and thrive. The men tread water to keep above their own tides.
What do you hope people will take away from this production of Describe the Night?
The thing with fascism and oligarchs is that they cut short the lives of people with tremendous talent and potential. They don’t rise above because they are not allowed to. The late great Alexei Navalny for example. We are seeing that right now here is the US, but there is a big difference between us and Russia. Russia has an effective oligarch. Ours are very dumb.
Describe the Night runs Thursdays-Sundays, November 5-15, at Shelton Auditorium. Thursday and Friday at 7:30, Saturday at 4:00, and Sunday at 2:00. Tickets can be purchased at the door (cheaper) or online.
Describe the Night by Rajiv Joseph is an Obie Award-winning thriller exploring the intersection of truth, propaganda, and history across 90 years of Russian history (1920–2010).
Synopsis: In 1920, the Russian writer Isaac Babel wanders the countryside with the Red Cavalry. Seventy years later, a mysterious KGB agent spies on a woman in Dresden and falls in love. In 2010, an aircraft carrying most of the Polish government crashes in the Russian city of Smolensk. Set in Russia over the course of ninety years, this thrilling and epic play by Rajiv Joseph traces the stories of seven men and women connected by history, myth and conspiracy theories.
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