About the Show

In this harrowing true story, Dana, a chaplain of a psych ward, is held captive with her life in a patient's hands for five months. Told in Dana's own words and reconstructed for the stage by her son, Lucas Hnath.

From the show:

Dana was a chaplain of a psych ward where she met a charismatic patient, an ex-convict searching for redemption. A harrowing true story, Dana was held captive with her life in this man’s hands — trapped in a series of Florida motels, disoriented and terrified — for five months. Told in Dana's own words and reconstructed for the stage by her son Lucas Hnath (A DOLL'S HOUSE PART 2, THE CHRISTIANS), “one of the freshest playwriting voices to emerge in the past five years” (The New York Times), this innovative work shatters the boundaries of the art form and our understanding of good and evil.

Critic Reviews (15)

CRITIC’S PICK. "‘Dana H.’ Maps a Harrowing Journey Into Hell: Lucas Hnath’s brilliant, boundary-melting play, starring a marvelous Deirdre O’Connell, is a first-person account of the violent kidnapping of his mother."
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4/5 Stars. "This is a performance of virtuoso naturalism; the technique is so perfect that it disappears...The effect of this device is complex: The use of Dana's voice gives her testimony a gripping sense of reality, even as its ventriloquism through O'Connell's body suggests an eerie sense of dissociation."
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"Lucas Hnath’s 'Dana H.' Is the Real Thing"
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"A Woman Is Kidnapped by a Member of the Aryan Brotherhood in Dana H. Lucas Hnath's true-crime docudrama opens off-Broadway."
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"It's a stranger-than-fiction horror story, told in a singular fashion seemingly calculated to preserve a certain distance between the audience and such violent, melodramatic events; in practice, the effect is spellbinding."
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"Making her Vineyard Theatre debut in what can only be described as a theatrical tour-de-force, Obie and Drama Desk-winner Deirdre O'Connell is giving the kind of bravura performance people will talk about for decades. "
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4/5 Stars. "A theatrical explosion not to be missed. Anyone interested in acting or the power of live theater will need to sit in on this heart-stopping 70 minutes."
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3/5 Stars. " Deirdre O'Connell delivers a vital, authentic performance that anchors the work in the truth that it hopes to tell."
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Trailer

Creative team