Recovering alcoholics and their friends especially will appreciate the truths expressed in The Dinosaurs, seemingly a delicate, 75-minute slice of modern-day life involving a women’s sobriety group. The stories and counting-the-days victories aired during their periodic meetings likely will sound familiar to many people. Setting aside such empathetic contents and the lovely acting of it, what makes The Dinosaurs interesting strictly as drama is the artful way Jacob Perkins, the playwright, manipulates time. Everything happens in the present, yet somehow years pass.
Premiering on Monday at Playwrights Horizons, The Dinosaurs is so intimate in both scale and mood that its production appears a tad too “small” a show even for the company’s 198-seat mainstage. Within the proscenium frame, the dots scenic designers provide, with greyish linoleum and overheard light panels, the realism of a stark, anywhere America type of meeting room rented out to various organizations for generations.
A top-flight acting ensemble imbue the characters with very natural ease. April Matthis arrives first to turn on the lights and begin arranging folding chairs into a semi-circle in her role as Jane, the patient soul who listens to everyone else. Elizabeth Marvel is Joan, the sharply-creased, take-charge lady who marches in bearing two cardboard boxes of coffee. Maria Elena Ramirez portrays Joane, the divorced professional worried about her adolescent son. An exuberant Mallory Portnoy and a fragile Keilly McQuail contrast as other members of the Saturday Survivors group, which has been functioning for over half a century. Arriving with a big tray of pastry is Kathleen Chalfant, all husky tones and wry good humor as Jolly, a jaunty, half-deaf octogenarian who has been coming to these meetings since they began. The street clothes fashioned by costume designer Oana Botez offer visual clues to these characters. (Although there’s no clue why the names of nearly all the characters begin with J; possibly to signal the play is not as realistic as it deceptively seems at first.)
Little actual storyline develops, really, as this weekly session progresses as usual and several women share their thoughts, regrets, intentions. “My trouble’s never really been with booze per se,” says someone. “It’s more what happens in my mind, you know?” Their everyday conversation, usually terse in the moment, produces well-worn expressions like “You can’t save everyone,” but warm feelings of compassion and friendship quietly glow amid the usually mundane talk.
Midway through the play, its structure briefly stutters as the women repeatedly welcome Joan back to the group, mentioning different spans of time. By now, attentive ears will have noted many incidental, casual references to changing days, weeks, months, years. The clock on the wall remains frozen but time is clearly passing. The daily struggle for people in recovery never ceases.
Of course, action-hungry viewers may dismiss The Dinosaurs as one of those watching-the-paint-dry affairs. Theatergoers who savor a smart, subtle use of language or can appreciate the generosity of feelings shared in such support groups likely will find this new play by Jacob Perkins to be a quietly touching show. Certainly there is no question regarding the excellence of the acting or the production as sensitively staged by Les Waters, a director who has helmed the premieres of works by the likes of Caryl Churchill, Will Eno and Lucas Hnath, and surely knows how to effectively present meaningful modern dramas like this one.
The Dinosaurs opened February 16, 2026, at Playwrights Horizons and runs through March 1. Tickets and information: playwrightshorizons.org
