Lunar Eclipse – 05 June 2025

Lunar Eclipse features a middle aged married couple who have settled into their life together and lost a little bit of the spark of their initial connection. They settle down on the land on their farm to watch a lunar eclipse. The phases of the eclipse mimic the phases of their life together, and the characters make a complete 180 degree transformation in relationship dynamics over the course of the play and the eclipse. At the beginning of the show, the wife, Em (Lisa Emery) does the bulk of the talking, nervously trying to find a connection with her husband, George (Reed Birney), who says he doesn’t want her there because he doesn’t want to be there. By the end of the eclipse, George is doing most of the talking, and he’s trying to convince Em of her worth because he really does remember wanting to be there. In the final scene, Lunar Eclipse takes us back in time as the same actors play the same roles in a memory of their first celestial event together—the night that they fell in love. The show is proof that a quiet, understated moment can be powerfully moving, and that acting doesn’t necessitate action and anger to be engaging and beautiful.

Youth and beauty are heavily prized attributes in theatre, and are often the subject of theatrical endeavors. Lunar Eclipse is refreshing and unique in that it forces us to look within the characters for beauty and truth. This love story stands on its own; it doesn’t need dramatic parental disapproval, a harebrained scheme to run away, a forbidden element, a huge financial obstacle, a meddling third party, etc. Instead, it showcases what happens later down the line. What does love look like when you’ve had a lot of pet dogs together, worked the land together, made personal sacrifices for each other, aged out of the ingénue stage… and most importantly, why aren’t there more plays about it? All theatregoers are young enough to know what it looks like to fight for love in the youthful, pining, fiery passionate way that so many playwrights have encapsulated.  We also have a lot of plays surrounding the end of lives. We don’t typically dramatize what happens in the middle.

This show connected powerfully with the demographic of theatregoers who came to see it. Em and George were both bright eyed, despite the changing in their bodies, and their onstage chemistry was moving in its surety. They went through changes together with confidence, and looked back on memories with and without fondness, but always without fuss. They weren’t able to be genuinely upset with each other, even in moments of awkwardness and uncomfortable confessions. When I think about the cannon of famous lovers in theatre, I wonder if any of them would really settle into this kind of love. Lunar Eclipse is truly magnificent at capturing a very real love story at a point that is not unique the way that love at first sight is. This is forever love—what the lovers at first sight tend to imagine they’re getting. Truth be told, I’m not sure I could see Romeo and Juliet ever having this kind of love if they had lived to middle age. This alternative version of what true love can be is unique in its portrayal, and I’d love to see more like it. What Lunar Eclipse posits about love is interesting, memorable, and profound. The support of beautiful video design (S. Katy Tucker), lighting design (Amith Chandrashaker), scenic design (Walt Spangler), sound design (Sinan Refik Zafar) and original music (Grace McLean) fleshed out a whole world in which humans are immeasurably tiny specs of existence whose living and loving is inconsequential, except, of course to them.

I attended this performance on a press pass from Polk & Co.