By Amanda VanNostrand.
Zinnie Harris’s Meet Me at Dawn, a Barrymore Recommended play, is currently showing at Inis
Nua Theatre in Philadelphia until March 5 th . Initially presented in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2017,
this show is one for theatre-goers who love to deeply feel the feelings; it brings viewers a
thought-provoking story that will give them pause in the best of ways, as only the good stories
do.
Meet Me at Dawn examines grief. Most of us understand that grievers wonder of, long for,
daydream in, another realm where their reality is or is not what it may or may not be. Mourners
live in a life that simultaneously feels too unreal and too real, and that brings about questions,
images, longings, and other actual yet wordless states of mind that may be necessary for the very
lowest levels of coping: the lowest acceptable phases of existing. A line in Meet Me at Dawn is,
“There is a strange place called grief, and all the rules are changed.” The characters’ stories bring
about the reality that grief gives mourners – grievers – the right, the audacity – to act, think,
question, be – what they need to. Characters go as far as asking the unreasonable questions such
as, “who has it worse – me, or the person who no longer lives?” (Not that the answer matters.)
A story that examines this unendurable phase of grief alongside love, Meet Me at Dawn brings
Robyn (Hannah Gold) and Helen (Jackie Soro) through a shipwreck and onto a mysterious,
questionable island. Home to only one additional stranger, the island consists of sand and rock,
and not much else (Scenic Design by Jillian Keys). Robyn has many questions and struggles
physically, emotionally, and mentally with what has happened, while Helen feels a renewed
sense of wonder and awe at having survived the wreck. As one partner holds it together and the
other struggles with their health, the two do what they can to take care of each-other in these
most unusual of circumstances. By the end, there is more to this wreck than they’d initially
thought, and while everything else is unknown and then suddenly understood much too clearly,
their love for each-other is what they hold onto.
As Meet Me at Dawn reminds the audience, everyone feels grief and loss at some point. Perhaps
the harshest piece of loss is that regardless of it being a universal experience, loneliness is an
inevitable reality. Gold and Soro are portraying lonely mourners with unique grievances, and
while these are no small roles to portray, both actors do a beautiful job. Gold’s portrayal of the
panicky, unnerved Robyn guides the audience to question alongside her what is real and what is
not, as Soro’s calm temperament convincingly turns Helen’s character into someone who wants
to hold it together while panicking just below the surface.
Meet Me at Dawn is beautiful and sad. It digs at the difficult things in life, asks some hard
questions, and leaves viewers to marvel at answers that are not what we would wish for, but that
are what life brings anyway. Fans of deep stories will appreciate Meet Me at Dawn.
Inis Nua Theatre Company’s Meet Me at Dawn will be playing at Louis Bluver Theatre at
the Drake until March 5 th , 2023. The theater is located at 302 South Hicks Street (near
15 th and Spruce) Philadelphia, PA. For tickets contact the box office at (215) 454-9776 or
click here.