‘Dana H.’ Theater Review: She Lip Syncs Her Way to Hell and Back

Lucas Hnath adapts interviews conducted with his mother, once captive to the Aryan Brotherhood. The result is harrowing

dana h lucas hnath
Photo: Carol Rosegg

An actor lip syncs not to songs but a taped interview. I’d seen this done only once before. Back in 2005, Lypsinka (John Epperson) performed Off Off Broadway in “The Passion of the Crawford,” taken from taped interviews Joan Crawford did with the legendary publicist John Springer. Perhaps I saw “Passion” too early in the run, but Epperson had problems matching the dead movie star’s voice whenever she started a new paragraph. His mouth kept having to play catch-up to the words.

Deirdre O’Connell is far more proficient at the task of lip syncing to the taped voice of Dana Higginbotham, the mother of playwright Lucas Hnath (“A Doll’s House, Part 2”).

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