Glenn Davis (left) and Yasen Peyankov star in Steppenwolf Theatre’s Chicago premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s “Describe The Night,” directed by Austin Pendleton.

Michael Brosilow

The last time Steppenwolf Theater presented a play by ensemble member Rajiv Joseph, it was the world premiere of the light and breezy “King James,” a small story about two basketball-loving bros who bond over LeBron.

Now the company is staging Joseph’s “Describe the Night,” first produced in New York in 2017. Suggesting that the plays are different is a laughable understatement.  

“Describe the Night” is a dense, epic-sized work about the clashes among truth, art and power. It’s a fanciful mishmash of history, mythmaking, conspiracy theories, artful fiction and propaganda, told with a stylized mix of earnestness and humor.

But despite the immediacy of its themes — how fact becomes fiction and vice versa — the play feels oddly dusty.

‘Describe the Night’

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Source:: Chicago Sun Times