O’Connell’s performance under Les Waters’s direction embodies both the doubt and the resilience in Dana as she fiddles with her glasses, twists a water bottle in her hands, and occasionally refers to her own written version of events, apologizing for the fuzziness of the time line she’s recounting. It’s not uncommon for victims of trauma to disconnect physically and feel as if their story is happening to someone else. Centering Dana’s actual voice while using another woman’s physical presence is a way for Hnath to both honor his mother’s experience in her own words (crucial when women’s accounts of violence and abuse are routinely discounted) and embody that disconnect.
This review has been amended to correctly reflect the year Dana Higginbotham was kidnapped. It was 1997, not 1998.
Through 10/6: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 2 and 8 PM, Sun 2 and 7:30 PM (2 PM only 10/6); also Thu 9/19, 2 PM, and Tue 9/24, 7:30 PM, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre.org, $15-$45.
