The night before its opening, I received an invitation to go to Souderton, PA to see a play by Deborah Zoe Laufer, “Be Here Now,” at Montgomery Theater. Normally, I wouldn’t respond to such a last-minute invite that is at a theater where I don’t usually review their plays. But I had seen another Laufer play at InterAct Theatre last year and loved it, so I said yes. I was so glad I did.
It is about Bari (Eleni Delopulos), a woman who is constantly down. She teaches at a college and is trying to work on her dissertation about nihilism. But she has writer’s block, taken time off from teaching, and is working beside two friends in a store that sells Tibetan spiritual statues that are made in China. It is fraud. And she feels like her whole life has been a fraud. One of the two women suggests she date her handsome cousin, Mike, to forget her woes. But Bari is determined to remain depressed… until she has a seizure and collapses.
When she comes to, she is a different person. She wants to meet Mike. She wants sex. She wants to write. But then, she passes out again and the others want to take her to the hospital. She refuses to go. It is not out of her negative nature but from her newfound optimism that she fears she will lose.
Meanwhile, Mike (Benjamin Bauman) has his own set of issues and survives by building small houses out of garbage. It is his art, that derived from a sad set of circumstances earlier in his own life when he had to live in his first garbage house. He has no phone, no internet or computer, and hasn’t driven a car in years. He gets around on a bike.
The question for each is “how to move on.” What changes dare a person make to find happiness and does happiness even exist? If Bari gets the operation to prevent her seizures, will it take away the joy she feels after each one? Does Mike dare to change the hermetic life he is living?
Delopulos and Bauman are great in conveying their angst- it is so powerfully honest. It is fascinating to see these two characters on different journeys through life who have little in common and wonder if they can ever get together on any level.
Laufer’s play is a unique look at what it means to try to live in the moment while it questions the standard remedies to attain happiness. Director Kristin Heckler has done an outstanding job in presenting this simple yet complex story about two troubled people. In this brilliant 90-minute play.
“Be Here Now” by Deborah Zoe Laufer at Montgomery Theater, 124 Main Street, Souderton, PA 18964. 215-723-9984 montgomerytheater.org thru October 5, 2025
Philadelphia Theater Reviews by Frank Burd 