Night comes alive in BPP’s ‘Nocturnal’

Night is a time of darkness, mystery and illusion in the Bloomington Playwrights Project’s upcoming production of “Nocturnal,” a new play by writer Ramon Esquivel.
In what begins as an innocent prank, four teens challenge each other to new levels of risk and danger.

“These young people are trying to find themselves, but they’re still hidden in some ways and each one of them has dark corners of their personality and their psyche,” Esquivel said. “It’s not something that’s talked about onstage, at least not any stage high schoolers see.”

The play begins with three freshman boys, Cisco, Rolly and Ryker, on a mission to vandalize their school as a prank. Sophomore Amelia catches them in the process and allies herself with Cisco, creating a rift between him and the other boys. Ryker, the trio’s alpha male, fights back by using peer pressure to make Amelia convince everyone to commit the most dangerous stunt of all.  Meanwhile, Rolly is caught between his two best friends.

“It’s about social hierarchy within groups of friends and the shifting allegiances that occur even within a conversation,” Esquivel said.

Director Breshaun Joyner said one of the most interesting aspects is that these are good kids who end up doing bad things, not because of any external force, but because they push each other into it.

“They’re not delinquents ... They’re in the chess club; they take Latin in high school,” she said. “These are not bad kids. They are kids who make bad, very poor decisions.”
IU junior Ian McCabe plays Rolly and said the push-and-pull dynamic between the various characters creates a high-tension, desperate situation.

“I think all the characters do good things, and all the characters do some bad things,” Esquivel said. “That’s what makes them interesting.”

As the play progresses, so do the pranks as the teens challenge each other to new heights.

“They’re not backing down from it because they need to save face,” Joyner said.
IU sophomore Elijah Willis, who portrays Cisco, said audience members beyond high school can connect with the play as well.

“I think the play hits on a sense of nostalgia,” Willis said, “or just the way we are with our friends.”

Nikeeta Brown and McCarry Reynolds round out the cast as Amelia and Ryker, respectively. The BPP also performed a preview of the show Wednesday for local students and educators. Afterward, it hosted an open discussion of the play’s themes – peer pressure, personal and sexual identity and the awkward transition to adulthood – with local youth services professionals.

The play has never been published or produced anywhere else – an example of why actors like McCabe love the BPP.

“It’s not ‘Wicked,’ it’s not ‘Treasure Island,’ it’s not Shakespeare,” he said. “They’re doing the riskiest thing someone in the theater can do ... pushing the theater into an evolution.”