Be Here Now at NC Stage Co.
What is true happiness? And does it matter how we achieve it? Those questions are woven into the fabric of NC Stage Co.’s Be Here Now, maybe even more so than the conundrum the main character finds herself in and the life-altering choice she eventually will have to make.
Each character in Deborah Zoe Laufer’s 2018 play has found happiness by their own devices, whether it be simplicity, medication, or routine. Each of the characters that is, save one. Bari (Rebecca Morris), a former professor attempting to finish her dissertation on — of all things — nihilism, is miserable. And in her misery, she seizes on the happiness of everyone else, challenging the source of their joy and serenity. Flirtatious sexts? Ridiculous. Yoga and meditation? A waste of time. Happiness itself? Futile.
Bari is a pill. And yet somehow, her co-workers Patty (Patricia Snoyer Black) and Luanne (Tamara PiLar) manage to tolerate her at the shipping warehouse where the three work in the fictional town of East Cooperville in upstate New York. They even go so far as to set Bari up on a date with artist and dharma bum Mike (Philip Kershaw), who she does her best to belittle, insult, and generally run off. To put a fine point on it, Bari is an asshole — one who sees no redeeming hope in the world and seeks to crush it out when she finds it in others.
That is until she begins having strange seizures that lead to spells of enlightened joy, but also occasional unconsciousness. As she experiences more of these mysterious attacks, she begins to desire their return, even after she finds out that their source is a potentially fatal tumor. Bari has found something that makes her happy, and it just might kill her.
Morris conveys Bari’s bitterness with an effectiveness that is frankly off-putting during the opening scenes, and the discomfort it triggered made me wonder if she should dial it back a bit. But once the happy spells kicked in, the transition in Morris’ face and demeanor was startling, and the relief of this break in the dark clouds was palpable.
As Bari’s colleagues, Black and PiLar keep a great bustle of good-natured jabber going and provide a steady contrast to Bari’s gloom. Black’s Patty is a well-intentioned mother figure who wants to give helpful guidance if she can just get everyone to sit still for a minute. PiLar is a delight, playing Luanne as a devil-may-care, boob-texting, Top-40-singing young woman too far out on her own thing to let Bari, or anyone else, get to her.
But Mike proves to be Bari’s greatest challenge. Despite her best barbs, his tranquility and humble self-assuredness make him unflappable — initially, at least. Kershaw nimbly handles the character, even as Mike’s serenity begins to wear away and the tragedy of his past comes to light.
As the four players navigate the NC Stage Co.’s small space, the production team displays its continued ability to transform the stage with minimal changes. Bari’s episodes are marked by clever van Gogh swirls that are only visible when the lights transition — an effective tool from scenic designer Julie K. Ross and lighting designer CJ Barnwell — and the use of two flat-screen TVs and a soundtrack during scene changes are novel and keep the pace moving. At 90 minutes with no intermission, the play doesn’t lag, and the story arc climbs steadily to Bari’s eventual decision, one that her companions insist she has to make.
Director Candace Taylor’s reading of Laufer’s source material keeps its big ideas grounded in a current, everyday, and believable environment. These are scenes and exchanges we all could see in our own neighborhoods, and it doesn’t feel far at all from home.
Be Here Now is a modern story — its language, devices, and situations speak very much to today. And there’s nothing more modern that the pursuit of happiness in a world where it’s easy to think that nothing matters. The hunt for joy and the cure for malaise is pitched to us from every angle — spiritual, chemical, and social. But we don’t always find happiness by following each other around.
In Be Here Now, Mike found his by walking away from the crowd, and has perhaps the most grounded guidance for change — something even bigger than happiness — when he says to Bari, “If you want to be a better person, be a better person.” Happiness is not just a feeling; it’s also in how we treat the world around us.
Although the most marked and central transition in Be Here Now is the one undergone by Bari as she opens up to happiness, it’s also interesting to see the tables turn when her compatriots find out the truth behind her change. The same people who vigorously defended the sources of their own happiness against the skeptical judgment of Bari turn to absolutists when it comes to fixing the ominous reason behind hers. Medication is OK. Dropping out is OK. Tumors? Not so much. Maybe happiness, as they say, is truly all in your head.
Be Here Now runs through Sunday, Dec. 11, at NC Stage Co. For details and tickets, visit ncstage.org.
(Photos courtesy of NC Stage Co.)
