In the 1998 storyline, we see Jay’s son reading the journals to figure out why his father committed suicide.  Jay’s son is visited by his mother and sister – encouraging him to put down the journals and get out of the apartment and get back into life.  The final scene set in 2021 during the height of COVID focuses on a podcaster, Eli, that has rented the apartment from the family and starts to read the journals that oddly have been left in the apartment.  Eli is trying to break out of his hookup life and find some find some freedom.

Well the play could work – but it just doesn’t.  There is NO subtlety in the play.  Everything is shouted and repeated over and over again.  Claims of love and commitment are made over and over again.  It just got old.  I just had trouble believing it all.  The set was realistic but the dialogue and the delivery was so over the top and artificial that it was in conflict.  I couldn’t believe they typed, they drank, they ate, they wrote, they cooked – they had the props – but they were not handled fully.  In the 1998 scene with the son – I truly did not believe in the world of the son.  He goes from a curiosity of his father’s journals to killing himself WITH NO MOTIVATION AT ALL.  Try as it would, it was not devastating at the end.  The audience around me found it more ridiculous and contrived.  It was as if each character needed to have a real good reason for a cry and that was what the playwright gave to 1998.

I really wanted to like this – but too much tragedy was dished out in two hours and it led to a lot of indicated pain and forced resolutions.