Never Is Now

Find the time this weekend and see this powerful production. After all, Never Is Now is more than just a title. Arguably, it’s a phrase that encompasses the scariest reality of the present day.

Directors Tony Abatemarco and Celia Mandela Rivera keep the show moving, making the most of the sparse set and employing projections to powerful effect.

The year 2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps; survivors’ ranks are dwindling. Thanks to the efforts of the many who have endeavored to memorialize them, their words and lives can continue, as lessons and inspiration, for generations. Never Is Now plays a role in ensuring we will Never Forget.

It works due to a simple fact--these real lives harrow us, just by the sharing. Such truths lash out, making audiences wince and often weep. I certainly did. Which remains the whole point. If we let ourselves feel, then the experience of such memories shared changes us.

Originally created as a way to share the true stories of actual Holocaust survivors in schools to assure the world will never forget the human horrors of that time, the play has been expanded so we first meet the actors themselves who go on to share the survivors’ stories. Thus we learn to understand how their own lives and problems, as well as their fears about living in America now, are reflected as each transforms into various characters from across Eastern Europe who lived in fear as the unthinkable began happening all around them. This powerful new play is thought-provoking theatre at its best as Kout disturbingly asks us to consider how “Never Forget” and “Never Again” have become NEVER IS NOW as fear and apathy seem to be ruling the day.

Caroline Andrew’s scenic design is stark: only six movable square boxes serve as the entire setting. It soon becomes clear and this is a riveting story that primarily goes on inside the head – making background superfluous. In fact, the production team has probably ascribed to the axiom that “less is more.” Despite the very simple setting, however, passions run high. As each account develops, there may not be a dry eye in the theater. Despite the grim subject matter, however, author Wendy Kout never forgets that hope makes anything possible.

All told this is a fascinating night of theatre directed by Tony Abatemarco and Celia Mandela Rivera and a take on people who operate on two levels; as people of 1930’s Germany and as actors who are portraying the present-day roles. We get the point loud and clear. Quietly beautiful and wonderfully effected, it is hard to tell where Abatemarco’s directing begins and Rivera ends.

There is a lot of very poignant material here, and it is well performed by the refreshingly diverse cast, but this is not the right format to properly service it. The amount of ground to cover is too ambitious for the short running time, and the themes are too heavily emphasized to the point where there is no room left for imagination or personal interpretation.

NEVER TAKE FOR GRANTED
THE PHRASE “NEVER AGAIN”
Wendy Kout, the playwright of Never Is Now asks the question, “What happens when people from diverse backgrounds experience the firsthand accounts of ten survivors who were labeled ‘undesirable’ and thrust into Hitler’s systematic genocide?”
She shows us exactly what happens in a very powerful, emotional and disturbing way. It doesn’t take long before Skylight Theatre patrons realize that atrocities which happened in Germany so many years ago could very well happen in our country today, if it hasn’t already started.

Kudos to Tony Abatemarco and Celia Mandela Rivera for superb direction, guiding with knowledgeable, gentle hands that allow the actors to soar and the pathos to flow.

Plain and simple, "Never is Now" is an extremely rare moment in time in which a portion of history that has been presented multiple times one way, is presented in a very unique unveiling. Go see it. Even if you are familiar with the subject matter, you will see it, hear it, feel it, in a different way. The voice is different and you will be different for seeing it.

Staging by co-directors Celia Mandela Rivera and Tony Abatemarco is simple and graceful, and intelligently highlights the unique talents of each ensemble member. Additionally, projection design by Lilly Bartenstein underscores the play’s most pivotal moments and makes the past feel present. - RECOMMENDED