A play about addiction and dementia doesn’t sound like it would be anything but grim, but “The Reservoir,” Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s season-opening dramedy by Jake Brasch, finds a surprising amount of resilience in laughter.
Described as semi-autobiographical, the play follows a year in the life of college student Josh (Ben Hirschhorn), whose alcoholism has led him from theater school in New York to the shores of a reservoir in his Colorado hometown. How he got there and why his arm is bleeding he can’t quite remember. The blackout days were pretty black indeed.
Josh’s mother (Brenda Withers) is as worried about her son as she is wary of him, and all the promises he makes about really committing to sobriety this time don’t seem to convince her in the slightest. Still, she gives in and helps Josh try to start over.
He gets a part-time job in a bookshop, even though his scrambled brain has a hard time alphabetizing books (he believes sorting by smell might be a better system), and he vows to start spending time with his grandparents, all of whom live nearby.
Because Josh’s life has been consumed by being a queer big city college kid partying too hard, he has lost touch with his grandparents and is surprised to find that his Nana (Barbara Kingsley) has such advanced dementia that she barely talks and doesn’t recognize him. Her stern husband, Hank (Michael Cullen), doesn’t seem to be handling the illness very well and says she’s “having a bad day.”
Meanwhile, Josh’s other grandparents, divorced for years, are faring better. Shrimpy (Peter Van Wagner) is studying for his second bar mitzvah, which is allowed at age 83 (if you’re expected to die at 70 but live 13 more years, you can opt to celebrate), so Josh helps him study his haftarah reading for the ceremony. Grandma Bev (Pamela Reed), a former electrical engineer, is sharp and unsentimental. She’s the only family member who really has a clue what Josh is going through as he tries to cope with his own issues by helping his grandparents through half-baked research about what might stave off Alzheimer’s (exercise! spinach! puzzles!).
Josh thinks that by creating a sort of reservoir of cognitive skills and exercises for both himself and his grandparents that he can defy biology. But in reality he’s kind of an annoying maniac who is replacing one fixation with another.
Director Mike Donahue sets the entire play on the shores of a beautiful lake (the giant photo backdrop and reflective stage are by designer Afsoon Pajoufar), with a few chairs and a book cart the primary set pieces. The simple staging, with dramatic, boldly colorful lighting by Alexander V. Nichols, keeps a tight focus on the excellent cast, which also includes Jeffrey Omura in a variety of roles.
Hirschhorn’s Josh manages to be endearing even when the character’s messiness and selfishness overwhelm him. A big part of this story is Josh coming out of himself to see the larger world and the people in it who are individuals in their own right, and not just grandparents or parents or whoever he thinks certain people should be.
The biggest revelation for Josh involves Bev, and Reed emerges as the funniest, most interesting character in the show. She’s not some sweet Jewish grandmother stereotype who will mollycoddle her ailing grandson. She comes from a place of tough love and wisecracks. She knows she can make a difference in Josh’s life, and she does.
It’s a complicated thing to depict the ravages of dementia and addiction while
maintaining a bright, peppy theatrical pace, but “The Reservoir” makes an admirable attempt. There’s not a lot of depth or detail in Brasch’s exploration of either illness, and it seems much is either glossed over or missing.
If the production is slick, the performances are heartfelt, tender and funny. This
“Reservoir” overflows with compassion, especially when it comes to depicting older people whose lives are defined not just by age but rather by their relationships to spirituality, addiction, denial, sex, family — the stuff of life in the shadow of encroaching mortality.
Chad Jones has been writing about Bay Area theater since 1992; theaterdogs.net
‘THE RESERVOIR’
By Jake Brasch, presented by Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Through: Oct. 12
Where: Berkeley Rep’s Peet’s Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley
Running time: 2 hours and 15 minutes (including one 15-minute intermission)
Tickets: $25-$135 (subject to change); www.berkeleyrep.org