By Bart Greenberg***Norwegian Jon Fosse is an author, translator and playwright—and a recipient of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is also the second most produced Norwegian playwright, only succeeded by the iconic Henrik Ibsen. Natta Syng Sine Songar (aka Nightsongs and Night Sings Its Songs) was written in 1997 and is currently being produced by New Light Theater Project in a 
translation by Sarah Cameron Sunde at Theater Row. Perhaps something was lost in the translation or it’s simply a cultural schism, but it is a very long 70 minute one-act without any invitation for audience emotional connection.
The story is simple. The Young Woman (Susan Lynskey) and The Young Man (Kyle Cameron)—the playwright gives them no other names—are a married couple in a very troubled relationship. He is a very depressed failure of a writer who can barely get off the couch. She is on maternal leave from an unspecified but evidently well-paying job, burning with frustration over her spouse and her baby, who seems to sleep far too much. From the beginning of the play, their situation is very clear and really doesn’t vary throughout the evening. They do receive a visit from his parents (Steven Rattazzi and Jenny Allen) who have not seen the baby previously; it is a brief visit and the tension between the quartet is conveyed in half-sentences and 
silent glances. Later, there is the arrival of Baste (pronounced as two syllables) (Ken King), the Wife’s friend and the only character granted a name. The dialogue throughout is filled with pauses, repeated phrases and banal words. In many ways, it is reminiscent of Edward Albee in general, and A Delicate Balance. Here, the characters seem lost in their own thoughts and desires, with deep resentments barely hidden (the otherwise subservient Mother suddenly zings her husband with a comment about consulting bus schedules).
It is difficult to judge on first encounter who is responsible for the less than convincing performances: the actors, the director or the script. Certainly director Jerry Heymann stages the rather static action smoothly, keeping individual moments focused, and provides enough logical movement to vary the stage picture, a tricky proposition when The Young Man spends so much of the playing time flat on his back on the sofa at the center of the stage. In the role, Cameron took the ennui to a remarkable level. As his wife, Lynskey is mostly shrill and angry, not even summoning up any tenderness for the problematic baby. The only sequence where she gets to step away from the off-putting
attitude is in her attempt to arouse and seduce her husband, which feels like a weak shadow of the first act of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Allen, as the Mother, gives a strange, fluttery performance reminiscent of Frances Sternhagen’s store of eccentric old ladies, and Rattazzi manages to bring some welcome energy to the sedentary (like father, like son) and taciturn Father. King mostly plays befuddlement, which is rather appropriate for the confused character from the outside.
The set design by Brian Dudkiewicz was also a bit of a puzzle: architecturally impossible with its curved, polished wall somewhat resembling an airport departure lounge in the 1960s. The rest of the design team provided adequate work. But then, the dreary script didn’t inspire much more to begin with. As noted, it may be unfair to judge Fosse’s work by this one play, or it may just be a cultural gap, but there was little impact, or even interest, in this brief but overly long look at some dreary people.
Night Sing Its Songs plays at Theatre Row, 410 W. 42nd St., NYC through March 1, 2025. Tickets can be purchased via bfany.org or at the box office. Running time: 70 minutes (no intermission).
