DANA H. tells the harrowing true story of a woman held captive in a series of Florida motels for five months. Told in Dana's own words and reconstructed for the stage by her son, playwright Lucas Hnath, this groundbreaking work shatters the boundaries of the art form and challenges our understanding of good and evil.
Call it Thriller Karaoke, a form in which the story is almost as dangerous as the mode of storytelling. You worry that O'Connell will fall out of sync with the recording, which never stops once the play begins. Gradually, though, as her inerrancy becomes clear, you let go of that concern and switch to related ones: Why tell the story this way in the first place? What do you get from the astonishing feat, besides astonishment, that you wouldn't get if the same material had been acted out as it might be in a typically effective television procedural?
'Dana H.' is unlike any play you've ever seen on Broadway. It's 75 minutes of an actress sitting on a chair, lip-syncing to a tape of a woman recounting the horrific story of a deranged criminal in Florida abducting her and terrorizing her for five months. Those intrigued by the show might have some basic questions: Is this really theater? Is the story really true? Is it really worth paying up to $199 per ticket to see? I don't have definitive answers for you. But I left the Lyceum exhilarated, thinking: This was an incredible work of theater. Then I thought more about it. What makes 'Dana H.' exhilarating, I realized, is the performance by Deirdre O'Connell.
2020 | Off-Broadway |
Vineyard Off-Broadway Premiere Off-Broadway |
2021 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Awards | Deirdre O'Connell |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Play | Dana H. |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Les Waters |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Deirdre O'Connell |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Mikhail Fiksel |
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