Review: ‘The Reservoir’ at Geffen Playhouse explores alcoholism and Alzheimer’s
- Anita W. Harris
- Jun 28
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 29
The best thing about Jake Brasch’s new play “The Reservoir” — currently enjoying its West Coast premiere at Geffen Playhouse and coproduced with Denver Center for the Performing Arts and Alliance Theatre — is that it gives an inside view into what one young man’s alcoholism feels like to him.
We see how alcohol — even in the form of vanilla extract — calms college student Josh’s (Jake Horowitz) thoughts that otherwise flow like a raging river. It helps (and is funny) that his four grandparents enact that river at one point, arms waving, even as they confront their own aging and risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Given that Alzheimer’s erases memory much like his alcoholism does, Josh realizes he may be more like his grandparents than he thought. Kicked out of a rehab facility, he returns home to Colorado — reluctantly received by his wary mom Patricia (Marin Hinkle) — and vows to help his grandparents increase their “reservoir” of resistance to the disease.
Josh also counts the days of his own sobriety, surprised at how many add up as he forces himself and his grandparents to eat spinach and goes with them to Jazzercise classes.
This premise is delightful in bringing together two generations who share the common threat of losing their minds. Despite his good intentions, though, Josh remains solipsistically trapped in his own pain. Though sweetly charming like a puppy dog, it’s hard to actually sympathize with him. When his bookstore supervisor Hugo (a warm Adrián González) reveals that he has problems of his own, we kind of want to hear more about that.
Even when Josh’s grandmother Beverly (Liz Larsen) takes him up to a mountain to therapeutically call out “I am nobody” in a canyon and hear its echo (again funnily enacted by the other grandparents), it’s not clear that Josh internalizes the experience. A theatrical work he eventually creates is melodramatically funny about his life but also feels like the hollow echo.
Instead, it’s the four grandparents who touch our hearts. Josh’s other grandmother Irene (Carolyn Mignini) is already suffering from Alzheimer’s when he returns home. She embodies the Christmasy warmth he remembers from his childhood and appears in his dream telling him she wants to be buried in the loamy Nebraskan cornfield of her own childhood, ready to sprout into a tree.
Her husband Hank (Geoffrey Wade) is stalwartly reticent, though we sense something like war pain or other damage in his upbringing that prevents him from emotionally connecting. Shrimpy (Lee Wilkof), Josh’s other grandfather, is the opposite — hilariously open about his sexual proclivities and gearing up for a second bar mitzvah at 83.
But it’s Larsen as Grandmother Beverly (seeming to channel Barbara Streisand) who commands our attention the most. A former scientist with a sharp and acerbic wit, Beverly is full of zingers and nobody’s fool. She sees through Josh’s self-deceptions and eventually gives him some of the knowing tough love he needs to snap out of his doldrums. It’s her we sympathize with the most toward the end.
Dynamic direction by Shelley Butler is enhanced by Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew’s animated lighting that facilitates scene and mood shifts, along with Takeshi Kata’s moveable sets pieces. And costumes by Sara Ryung Clement capture the personalities of younger and older characters alike, ranging from hipster lumberjack looks to 80s-style aerobics wear and 90s-era tracksuits.
“The Reservoir” is thus an engaging show with a commendable story premise, featuring a very likeable main character and admirable secondary character. One only wishes to have been able to plumb the depths of both characters more, to feel their respective reservoirs rather than just hear about them.
Though Josh narrates vividly from his own internal perspective, he remains as distant from us as he may be from himself. The narrative structure is reminiscent of Michael R. Jackson’s musical “A Strange Loop,” which also features a young, gay male interacting with his own thoughts, though in a way being trapped by them. James Ijames’s “Fat Ham,” which performed vibrantly at the Geffen last year, also has a young, gay male protagonist but who, despite being based on Hamlet, may know himself better.
These stories and perspectives are refreshing. Though Josh is a somewhat flawed character, it’s eye-opening and interesting to get his thoughts and understand his experience of alcoholism. Thanks to Horowitz’s portrayal, he feels like a real person, both smart and funny. If we could care about him as we do his grandmothers, the experience could be moving as well.
“The Reservoir” continues at Geffen Playhouse’s Gil Cates Theatre, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles, through July 20, with shows Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. For tickets and information, call the box office at (310) 208-2028 or visit GeffenPlayhouse.org. Run time is 2 hour and 15 minutes, including intermission.
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