By SHARON EBERSON
Two old friends walk into a coffee shop, having not seen each other for eight years. They hug, they reminisce, they sip their coffees, they argue, they each deliver shock and awe over life-changing events. And so it goes in Years to the Day, the engrossing, at times exasperating, at times laugh-out-loud play at Carnegie Stage.
David Whalen and Dihlon McManne portray college pals Jeff and Dan, who are playing catchup in person after only occasional online connections.
Middleage finds both men having undergone a mountain of changes in recent years, and they are about to share them, with unexpected and profound consequences to their bond.
Years to the Day. (Image: Irish Riviera Productions)
How you feel about Dan will depend on your tolerance for aggressively clueless and offensive behavior towards anyone, no less a supposed good friend, even as a means to mask his own pain and suffering. Dan is insufferable. He knows it; we know it. One of the biggest laughs of the night came when Dan asked Jeff to admit to something, and Jeff, head in hands, finally says, “Yes,” if only Dan will stop talking.
There are several such LOL lines, often having to do with Dan’s outrageousness and Jeff’s outrage.
It may be a movie they vehemently disagree about, or Dan’s twisted reasoning for holding onto the old version of smartphone technology – no real-life brand names, titles or humans are mentioned – but almost every topic has Dan going down a rabbit hole of negativity. Jeff, however, is a man who holds his truths dear, though expressed in fewer words.
The men’s opposing views on movies, tech and, inevitably, politics, set the stage for personal revelation upon revelation. A lot can happen in eight years.
That some of these come as a shock to each man doesn’t always ring true. They do, after all, follow each other on social media. The disclosures do, however, provide fodder to challenge a longstanding friendship. Some of the conservative vs. liberal back-and-forth could have been written yesterday, although Years to the Day debuted in 2013.
McManne and Whalen play their adversarial moments to the hilt, all the while sitting at a small square table on a bare stage, with only two to-go coffee cups as props.
Their conversation and coarseness seems more fitting to a local bar than a coffee shop, but that might say more about me, wondering, “Is this really how middle-aged men talk in a public place?”
McManne’s Dan emanates that guy who doesn’t necessarily believe everything he says, but he can’t help pushing Jeff’s buttons, often to the nth degree. That Dan espouses conservative viewpoints and works hard at trying Jeff’s patience, and that Jeff declares, loudly, that he is a liberal makes picking sides a no-brainer.
A lot is made of the men being 55, and the notion that “50 is the new 40.” It is the one way that Los Angeles-based playwright and director Allen Barton, in attendance on opening night, has adapted his script, which originally was about two 40-somethings, during the Obama presidency.
Where the play is timeless and hits its mark is illustrating how a shared history can forgive almost any transgression. If you have seen The Big Chill, a prime example of college friends reconnecting over a shared trauma, you will get the underlying vibe that I most connected with as I watched Years to the Day.
Although eight years had passed since the two men were together, in person, it is noted often that Dan was on hand in college, when Jeff met his wife, and along the same lines, there is the mystery of what happened to their mutual friend and classmate, Tony.
Whalen’s Jeff wears a weary expression that the seemingly self-absorbed Dan doesn’t notice, but all will eventually be revealed. Or will it?
Years to the Day benefits from the power and presence of McManne and Whalen, who unpack a full range of emotions and a deluge of opinionated discourse, in a charged 80 minutes. Pittsburgh native Whalen is well know to Pittsburgh audiences, while McManne honed his craft in California and has been an instructor at Point Park University and a volunteer firefighter in Ben Avon.
It was McManne, now the head of his own Irish Riviera Productions, who persevered in bringing Years to the Day to Pittsburgh.
This two-hander at Carnegie Stage comes at a time when the Pittsburgh theater scene has been dominated by solo performances by men: Robin and Me at Pittsburgh Playhouse, The Real James Bond Was … Dominican at City Theatre, Unreconciled at barebones and The Return of Benjamin Lay at Quantum Theatre.
Years to the Day is set apart as a conversation, of course, but also, it explores contemporary themes of masculinity, identity, parenting, marriage, aging and the ties that bind, no matter the obstacles the world is bound to throw in their path.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Years to the Day is presented by Irish Riviera Productions and the Beverly Hills Playhouse, through February 3, 2025, at Carnegie Stage, 25 W. Main Street, Carnegie. Tickets: Visit https://www.carnegiestage.com/event-details-registration/years-to-the-day-2025-02-06-19-30
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