Johnnie's

The title of the piece, produced by George Mason University's Theater of the First Amendment, refers to Johnnie's wish for bliss at all hours of the day, every day.

'24, 7, 365' review: Perpetual state of angst can be hard to handle 2011

You feel a lot more for poor Jan, who's driven up a tree - literally - by Johnnie's shapeless ennui.

'24, 7, 365' review: Perpetual state of angst can be hard to handle 2011

A deep blue scrawl links Johnny's left eyebrow to his scalp, puckering the skin between his eyes in a horizontal frown: New Years Eve—-1944—-a drunk poet signed his name on Johnnie's face with a syringe filled with indelible ink.

Scars marci stillerman 2011

The look of joy on Johnnie's face decided everything.

THE PRODIGAL FATHER 2010

These were always yarns of a fictional little Scottish lad that invariably began, "I'll tell you a story 'bout Johnnie Nory …" Wherever I was in the house, I'd hear the howls of laughter and giggling as they followed Johnnie's naughty adventures, no doubt based on her own brothers' escapades growing up in 1930s Aberdeen.

Family life 2011

One of the more sophisticated facets of the play is that Jan and Johnnie's interracial relationship is made to seem immaterial to her unhappiness.

'24, 7, 365' review: Perpetual state of angst can be hard to handle 2011

Her overbearingly entitled yuppie brother, Beau (Craig Wallace), clumsily pitches a tent near Johnnie's with girlfriend-of-the-moment Shavondra (Fatima Quander), a clotheshorse who would flee nature faster than you can say "American Express."

'24, 7, 365' review: Perpetual state of angst can be hard to handle 2011

But Johnnie's perpetual angst makes her extremely hard to like, and so we're never recruited in her cause of finding eternal sunshine.

'24, 7, 365' review: Perpetual state of angst can be hard to handle 2011

Far more improbable are the plot mechanics that bring another visitor to the campground: Kwame Baye Harrell, the mate of Johnnie's client and the accused abuser.

'24, 7, 365' review: Perpetual state of angst can be hard to handle 2011

We learn over the course of an eventful camping trip, arranged by Johnnie's geologist husband, Jan Michael Kramer, that there has been some sadness in their childless marriage and some professional bumps in her work with battered women.

'24, 7, 365' review: Perpetual state of angst can be hard to handle 2011