A Giddy Spirit Makes ‘The Reservoir’ Worth Diving in

In his new play, “The Reservoir,” Jake Brasch addresses the ravages of alcoholism with what could have been a most sobering scenario. We first meet the play’s protagonist, Josh, a New York University student on forced medical leave, as he is lying on the ground, bleeding, after having been kicked out of rehab and sent back to his childhood home in Denver. But wait, it gets worse. After Josh’s long-suffering mom reluctantly agrees to take him in as he tries yet again to get off the sauce, this clearly intelligent and vibrant young man determines that, with his brain “broken” by drinking, he can relate most closely to his elderly grandparents — at least two of whom are suffering from dementia.Mind you, “Reservoir”, which has opened off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company, is a comedy, with an almost defiantly giddy spirit, and Shelley Butler, who directs this New York premiere, has put together a cast that includes, as those older folks, some of the nimblest and most robust veterans still treading the boards.Noah Galvin, best known for co-writing and starring in “Theater Camp” — a film beloved among the kind of unabashed nerds who would no doubt hang out with Josh, a drama major — has a less enviable task as the prodigal grandson. Josh is, by his own admission and to the at least occasional frustration of everyone around him, a handful, and not only when he’s off the wagon.Even the endlessly patient manager at the bookstore where Josh’s mom, Patricia, has landed him a job finally lashes out: “I’m doing 200 percent of the work while you sniff books,” Hugo snaps, early in Act Two. As Hugo also observes, Josh’s listlessness doesn’t prevent him from digging into medical journals, including one by Yaakov Stern, a real-life cognitive neuroscientist and authority on Alzheimer’s disease.Dr. Stern is portrayed, drolly, in a few of the play’s fanciful sequences — by Matthew Saldívar, who is also cast as Hugo — and eventually breaks it to Josh that his neurological issues are different from those of his maternal grandmother, Irene, and his paternal grandfather, Shrimpy, who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s: “You can rebuild, they cannot.” It’s this painful fact that gives “Reservoir,” for all its funny business, an indelible poignance, and the senior actors expertly mine both the humor and the pathos. Their characters don’t entirely transcend cliché: Shrimpy and his ex, Beverly, are Jews with quick, crass senses of humor, while Irene and her husband, Hank, are salt-of-the-earth Midwesterners; the script identifies Hank as a conservative evangelical who, while loving, “isn’t here for Josh’s antics.”But the players make these clichés sing — literally, in the case of the always marvelous Mary Beth Peil, who gets to show off her enduringly elegant soprano as the gentle but sturdy Irene. Peter Maloney’s Hank is the picture of unfussy decency and stubborn forbearance; it’s easy to see how this couple raised Patricia, whose compassion and grit are relayed in a beautifully measured performance by Heidi Armbruster.Caroline Aaron, known to TV audiences for playing a rather overbearing Jewish mother in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” has great fun with Beverly, an electrical engineer who loves Josh but also cherishes her independence, and has no trouble saying so in the plainest and crudest of terms. “Do I want to hang out with my unwell grandson all the time? No,” she says, in one of her more G-rated wisecracks.Shrimpy tries to be more of a buddy, asking his grandson about his own sex life. “You’re gay, right?” Shrimpy asks, with characteristic bluntness. “Mostly,” Josh quips, to which the old man responds, “That’s exciting…Have you ever had a threesome?” Shrimpy proves a perfect vehicle for Chip Zien, a mainstay of New York theater for nearly 50 years, who invests the character with such mischievous wit that he practically sparkles. “The Reservoir” may not glitter as brightly overall; Mr. Brasch could have cut a good half hour, starting with some of Jake’s often too-cute, navel-gazing asides. But its heart, and the marvelous cast here, make it worth diving in.

A Giddy Spirit Makes ‘The Reservoir’ Worth Diving in

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