Early on in Jake Brasch’s comedy about an alcoholic helped to sobriety by his grandparents, Josh (Noah Galvin), recovering from his latest full-on bender (blacked out, 11 stitches), is comforted by each of them telling him what a precocious child he had been. His Grandpa Shrimpy (Chip Zien) remembers how Josh thanked him for changing his diaper. “Joshy,” Shrimpy recalls saying, “if you speak in full sentences, why are you still shitting your pants?”
To which college-age Josh now comments: “I’ve shat my pants a few times over the last couple months.”
Grandma Irene (Mary Beth Peil) adds: “I have as well. We’re all losing our minds. The lot of us.”
“Hey. I guess that’s true,” Josh responds. “I guess we all have that in common.”
This is no idle exchange. “The Reservoir” was born out of a commission by the EST/Sloan Science and Technology Project for Brasch to write about dementia. Opening tonight at the Atlantic, it is instead largely a semi-autobiographical play about an alcoholic’s recovery. What most distinguishes it from the rest of the current spate of plays on the same subject (e.g. The Dinosaurs), is its attempted parallel focus on the decline of the elderly characters.
On a visit to Hank and Irene’s assisted-living facility, Josh is shocked to discover that Irene is suffering from dementia. He notices she looks vacant while sipping her tomato soup. Then she suddenly breaks into song (Mary Beth Peil offers a sweet, show-stopping rendition of “O Come All Ye Faithful”) He decides he could help his aging relatives while he works on getting sober. At the bookstore where he is a nominal employee (his mother got him the job), he starts researching both Alzheimer’s and alcoholism. He learns about a theory called Cognitive Reserve, which proposes that the progression of the disease is slowed if the individual has maintained healthy habits and practice that build up a reservoir against illness and brain damage (hence the play’s title.)
One by one, he engages in the recommended habits and practices, dragooning in his grandparents, in scenes that are mostly lively and funny:
Exercise: He accompanies Beverly (Caroline Aaron) to her exercise class at the Jewish Community Center.
Curiosity: He goes to an art museum with Hank (Peter Maloney.)
Education: He helps Shrimpy practice Hebrew for his second Bar Mitzvah at 83.
Diet: He insists at Irene’s assisted living facility that they give her more protein and leafy vegetables.
Josh thinks he’s doing all this for them, but a smart turn in the play, with several surprises, makes it clear that he got it wrong – it’s a lifetime of good habits that matter; there’s no quick fix late in life – and that that is not all he was wrong about. Josh comes to realize just how clueless and self-involved he has been, with the particular help of Beverly; Caroline Aaron is wonderful as the gravel-throated no-nonsense Grandma who barks her wisdom
Despite his realization, Josh remains the center of “The Reservoir.” He is, after all, the playwright’s stand-in and the narrator; the play is always from his perspective, despite some effort by Josh to get to know his grandparents as people – and by the playwright to show them that way. There is every indication that the play is Brasch’s affectionate tribute to his actual grandparents (at one point, Josh describes the distinct smell of each of them; Irene’s is “Flowers and all-purpose flour. Lilies and cookies. Ethereal. Like a fairy.”) But there is an imbalance in attention and detail that turns the older characters (not just the actors) into supporting players, and threatens to make them caricatures, especially in the overly broad comic scenes in Act I. Luckily, each of the veteran actors is given at least one substantive scene to demonstrate their deep reservoir of skill and talent developed over decades.
Directed fluidly by Shelley Butler with a minimal design, the production relies on ensemble acting; both Heidi Armbruster and Matthew Saldívar portraying multiple characters (among others, she’s Josh’s mother and a rabbi; he’s Josh’s co-worker and a neurologist), and the four grandparents moonlight as the crowd in scenes of a support group and others. But “The Reservoir” is inescapably the Noah Galvin show, and he makes the most of it. Galvin (best-known for Dear Evan Hansen and the short-lived TV series “The Real McNeal”) has fine comic timing, charm, and physical grace. But he is most impressive for the moments that his face registers, briefly but persuasively, Josh’s pain and sorrow.
The Reservoir
Atlantic Theater through March 15
Running time: Two hours and 15 minutes
Tickets: $57 (standing room) to $132
Written by Jake Brasch
Directed by Shelley Butler
Sets by Takeshi Kata, costumes by Sara Ryung Clement, lights by Jiyoung Chang, sound & original music by Kate Marvin
Cast: Caroline Aaron as Beverly, Heidi Armbruster as Patricia and others, Noah Galvin as Josh, Peter Maloney as Hank, Mary Beth Peil as Irene, Matthew Saldívar as Hugo and others, and Chip Zien as Shrimpy.
Photographs by Ahron R. Foster
