Dani Nelson and Jeaniene Green, photo by Mike Peters

(UNION, NJ) — Premiere Stages at Kean is presenting Diversion by Scott Organ now through September 22, 2024.  It's about a group of hard working nurses who have their world turned upside down when it is discovered that someone is diverting (aka stealing) opioids. This is a very well-written drama that was the winner of the 2023 Premiere Play Festival.

Diversion begins with Mandy (Edie Salas Miller) - a young nurse asleep in the hospital break room after a long night out. She’s new to the Intensive Care Unit and hasn’t made a good impression on Amy (DeAnna Lenhart) who is one of the senior members of the unit who enters the room.  “We work on Tuesdays, you know” says Amy.

Another nurse, Emilia (Dani Nelson), comes in next.  The entire group, including Mike (Lucas Iverson) who arrives last, was called in for an impromptu meeting by Bess (Jeaniene Green) - and that’s never a good sign.

“What are they blaming us for this time?” asks Amy.

Bess explains that she was notified about someone diverting medicine in the hospital. “Some opioids have gone missing. Didn’t tell me what and Cunningham essentially pointed his finger at us. At my crew. At you,” replies Bess.

This happened at the hospital once before around eight years ago, but they introduced measures that were supposed to make it impossible.  At this time, they don’t know for sure if the person diverting is a nurse, a doctor, or someone else. But they’re leaning towards it being a nurse, whether this particular unit or another.

“It’s bullshit,” says Bess. “And I am sick of it. But, the reason I called this meeting. The reason I am here before you now is to say this: if for some reason this is true. If for some unlikely reason one of you, one of my crew is illegally diverting opioids from our patients to yourself for your own pleasure, benefit, or remuneration - you will come clean to me, do you understand? You will come clean first.”

Bess goes on to alert them that Fortune Consultants will be sending someone to investigate and find out who is the guilty party. They were involved in the case eight years ago and were very disruptive to the hospital’s operation.

Lucas Iverson, Jeaniene Green and Edie Salas Miller, photo by Mike Peters

This is all happening as the hospital is getting ready for “the busy season” - in other words, the holidays.  As Mike explained to Mandy, holidays are when “people party, do stupid shit… Overeat, whatnot. Shoot or get shot by their racist uncle… Get depressed. Check out that synergistic effect - see how those oxys work with vodka.”

As we learn more about each nurse, we see how everyone has a reason to be a suspect.  Mike has a child with special needs that he can’t afford help for;  Emilia has been living with the stress of the covid period where the decision to make the call on who gets a ventilator fell to her; Amy has a history of taking pain medication for a bad back; and Mandy has a boyfriend who doesn’t really have a career, a father who is in prison, and falls asleep on her desk.

When the Fortune consultant, Josephine (Michelle Liu Coughlin) first appears, she enters the break room and just starts talking to Mandy about a hat she’s looking at in a catalog. Mike is next to arrive and wonders who this stranger in their room is. When the others arrive, they take offense at her being there as well.

“Why don’t we talk over at the nurses’ station?” asks Emilia.  “It’s just… this is sort of a private space.”

Josephine replies, “I get that. I do. Former nurse here. If it’s not patients yelling at you, it’s doctors, right?”

But as much as Josephine tries, she remains the enemy to the group - someone interrupting their space and accusing them of a crime.  And it doesn’t take long for her to learn about how each person could be the one diverting.  Much of that what she knows came straight from Amy and by offering that information she looks even more suspect in Josephine’s eyes.

Dani Nelson, Michelle Liu Coughlin and DeAnna Lenhart, photo by Mike Peters

One of my favorite aspects of the play is how well defined the characters are.  It doesn’t take long at all to become fully invested in each member of the unit - knowing their back stories, their struggles, and why they became a nurse in the first place.  They are all devoted to their profession, get to know their patients well, and deaths in the ICU hit them hard.  The ones who went through the covid period came through with wounds that will likely never heal.

As someone who has unfortunately spent a lot of time in hospitals over the last decade, I saw nurses like these up close.  Scott Organ does a wonderful job of showing their dedication, personal struggles, working understaffed with hard hours, and the lack of respect they feel. When you get to know nurses well, these are exactly the people you see when they get to reveal their own lives.  Being accused of diverting is an awful thing, but being investigated makes their daily work even more difficult.  It even makes them all view each other a bit differently.  They want to believe none of them did it, but more than anything they want the situation to be over.

Mike says, “It's like when you have a cop driving behind you. You know you didn't do anything wrong, but suddenly it feels like you did something wrong. Then suddenly you're gripping the wheel and it's like you don't know how to drive...”

The production is directed terrifically by John J. Wooten, the Producing Artistic Director at Premiere Stages.  The play moves along crisply, the actors have great chemistry together, and you truly are left guessing who is the one stealing the medicine.  Is it someone from their unit or someone else?

The cast is fantastic.  One of my favorite things is how each of the characters has a bit of an arc.  We see each change over the course of this 90 minute play.  There’s a number of funny lines - all good dramas use comedy to soften the blows - but the subject itself is very powerful and really makes you think.  We depend on doctors and nurses to be at their best - especially in the Intensive Care Unit where each second can mean the difference between life and death.  If a nurse is diverting and using the drugs themselves, that can be devastating.  It’s a very scary scenario.

This is a very powerful play and highly recommended!

Diversion has performances Thursdays through Sunday until September 22nd. Tickets are available for purchase online. Performances take place at Kean University’s Bauer Boucher Theatre Center (1000 Morris Avenue) in Union, New Jersey.

Michelle Liu Coughlin and Dani Nelson, photo by Mike Peters

One side note: at the performance I attended, there was a loud audible noise for several minutes.  It sounded like feedback from someone’s hearing aid.  After a few minutes, Premiere Stages made the difficult decision to halt the play and find the source of the problem.  I thought they handled the situation very well and props go out to Dani Nelson as Emilia who was in the middle of a very intense scene when the play was halted.  She was alone on stage at the time and had to redo the scene, which must have been incredibly difficult to break character for a few minutes and then restore the character at such a pivotal moment.  When the cast took bows at the end, you could see the performance took a toll on her but she performed magnificently.  And thankfully they were able to solve the problem and the play continued without the noise.

I think theatre companies might be wise to add a message about hearing devices when they remind people to turn off their phones prior to the start of a play.  I’ve never experienced this at a play before, but it’s a situation that needs to be avoided.  I’m extremely impressed that the actors were able to perform as well as they did with the noise very apparent in the theatre.

 

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