Berkshire on Stage

Samuel D. Hunter has been slowly amassing a very impressive body of work since his first major success with the Obie winning A Bright New Boisie in 2010. COVID and his devotion to chronicling the inhabitants of the Idaho of his imagination have yielded perhaps his greatest work yet with Little Bear Ridge Road which is playing in an exquisite production through 11/8 at TheaterWorks Hartford directed by its Artistic Director Rob Ruggiero.

American theater has been criticized for its preponderance of family dramas from Long Day’s Journey Into Night to The Glass Menagerie to Death of a Salesman and perhaps we would be better served with more socially or civic minded dramas. If the family is a metaphor for the country and we can divine national themes in these characters and their relationships than Little Bear Ridge Road sees us as strained if not estranged relatives on opposite sides of the room masked, mumbling, inarticulate and unable to ask for help or free and easy to offer love or comfort.

It’s Spring 2020 and Ethan has escaped an abusive relationship with a corporate lawyer in Seattle to settle his meth-addicted father’s estate in rural Troy, Idaho, 20 minutes outside Moscow (Hunter’s hometown). He has arrived in the middle of the night discomfiting his father’s sister Sarah, a nurse who has a hard time offering him a bed for the night.

Ethan hasn’t been in touch with his addict father for years after his father called him a faggot for not having given him $40. Sarah has not been in touch with the father Fernsby but has advice on selling the house and emptying the house. Hunter enjoys the financial particulars that defines his character’s worlds and when James learns of another character’s inheritance of $120,000, his head almost explodes. His inheritance from his father will be $8,000 for the house and all his worldly possessions even the band saw.

The two warily come to an arrangement which offers them company and some measure of shared experience through the bingeing of 30 episodes of one of the glut of quality streaming television shows called “The Extraterrestrials.”

Ethan eventually, after a year or so, arranges a meeting with another gay man named James, an astrophysicist, in the Wagon Wheel Bar. There’s an awkwardness and confusion about whether this arranged meeting is a hookup or a date and thankfully for the play, the characters and us it turns into both.

The setting and situation are grim, grief filled and hard scrabble. Nothing comes easy to these characters and there is not much brightness in their prospects as Sarah battles a serious condition and James contemplates a big move which Ethan can’t imagine for himself. Still, there is a fundamental decency and a grace afforded each other despite their shortcomings and failures.

Mishka Yarovoy is riveting as Ethan, curling into himself, burying himself protectively in hoodies and blankets or positively thrumming with panic ridden rage as he screams disbelievingly “I don’t know how to be a person in this nightmarish world!!” Fantastic performance!

Denise Cormier is all efficiency as the nurse Sarah who is being pushed out of her job. She is self sufficient, contained and sharp as a knife. When Ethan spits out that he hates this country, she immediately responds “Not as much as they hate you.” She is as wounded, needy and angry as her nephew. American life has not provided for either of them.

Travis Anderson offers a fine counterpoint in the boyfriend role and offers a cosmic perspective with his knowledge of the night sky. Janelle Anne Robinson provides a hopeful coda as a home nurse in the final scene delivering the plays final hard fought wisdom beautifully.

There is a beautiful backdrop on the Upstage wall that runs the width of the stage and looks like crumpled construction paper but when lit by Matthew Richards or Projected on with images or videos by Camilla Tassi it becomes a mountain landscape, the night sky, an early dawn or the western bar. The only piece of furniture is a rotating, multifunctional couch which is constantly changing from scene to scene. Set design by Michael Schweikardt.

Besides being one of Hunter’s funniest plays, the comical match of the last of the Fernsbys, Sarah and Ethan, is a combo for the ages. Little Bear Ridge Road also moved me as the most emotional work of the playwrights. I was in tears at the powerful anger and helpless condition of our body politic. Broke, cheated, lied to and uncared for…Ethan cries at the end of the play “And I’m supposed to keep doing this for the next forty years? Fifty years?!?”

Little Bear Ridge Road is a great American play perfect for this moment in time. Go and see it to laugh, cry, grieve for the past, lament the present and hope for the future.

TheaterWorks Hartford presents Samuel D. Hunter’s Little Bear Ridge Road, directed by Rob Ruggiero, from October 8-November 8, 2026, at 233 Pearl Street in Hartford, CT. CAST: Denise Cormier as Sarah, Mishka Yarovoy as Ethan, Janelle Anne Robinson as Paulette/Vickie, and Travis Anderson as James/Kenny. CREATIVE TEAM: Michael Schweikardt (Set Design), Risa Ando (Costume Design), Matthew Richards (Lighting Design), Minjae Kim (Sound Design), Billy Bivona (Original Music), and Tenley Pitonzo (Stage Manager). Casting by Paul Hardt.

Performances are Tuesdays – Saturdays at 7:30pm, and Saturdays – Sundays at 2:30pm. Special performances include Saturday, 10.31 at 12pm and 4pm, Tuesday 11.3 (closed for Election Day – no performances), and Thursday, 11.5 at 1pm and 7:30pm. The run time is approximately 100 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are priced between $25 – $70 (fees not included). All tickets can be purchased online at twhartford.org, or by calling 860.527.7838.