Night of January 16th

Directed by Theo Devaney, Ruth Stage’s Night of January 16th radically reimagines Ayn Rand’s courtroom thriller as a bold, heightened descent into a dark, purgatorial parallel reality. On the night of January 16th, financier Bjorn Faulkner falls from the penthouse of his own skyscraper, and Karen Andre, his former secretary, lover, and closest confidante, is accused of his murder. But the question is not only whether Karen killed him. It is whether the depth of her love, loyalty, and understanding makes her guilty, or makes her the only person capable of telling the truth about who Bjorn really was.

At every performance, 15 audience members serve as the jury, drawn into the trial and ultimately charged with determining the verdict. Their decision determines which conclusion the company performs that evening, implicating the audience in the central question of the play: what kind of truth do they believe?