THE STORY: THE MOMENT WHEN follows five people as their lives intertwine and separate. Steven, an artist, meets the writer Alice at a fashionable New York party hosted by Paula, a legendary literary agent. Paula’s young assistant, Dana, introduces herself to Alice and Steven, and the courses of the next fifteen years of their lives are set in motion. The play marks those moments in our lives that may pass unnoticed but determine who we become. THE MOMENT WHEN, while tracking the successes and failures of career, marriage, parenthood and friendship, also charts the life of Dana and Steven’s son, Charley, who begins his own trajectory towards fulfillment and loss.
“THE MOMENT WHEN is about life’s odd twists and turns, roads taken and not taken, connections lost and found. In its quiet way, it makes major demands on both actors and audiences. In structure, scope and style, THE MOMENT WHEN may remind you of two British imports
Closer and
Amy’s View, but there is nothing derivative about its immense wit and insight and sensitivity. Lapine may never have written anything finer than this play’s final monologue about the mysterious impulses that can unite or alienate us.” —Variety.
