The play's name is self-explanatory. It concerns a vigil, though a very peculiar one. A rather neurotic young man has been summoned to the apparent deathbed of an aunt, whom he has not seen or heard from in 30 years. Brent Carver plays Kemp, and Martha Henry, Grace, the aunt. It takes courage to play either role, and first-rate ability. Both performers, of course, possess these qualities.

Carver is the piano that plays the full score, Henry the almost silent, ill-tuned one. He performs a constant monologue highlighted by Henry's silent facial expressions. Even the flick of the eyes convey her message clearly. This is not easy to do. Only in the second half of the production does she make the odd sound, and finally even speaks a full line.

While a vigil does not imply comedy, in Panych's strange bend of theatrical mind, the play is just that, a strangely dark, yet also light comedy of manners and of errors.

The nephew has come to the aunt's ramshackled home with the assumption that her death is eminent. But days turn into weeks and then into months. The passage of time is indicated through quick blackouts. Much to Kemp's frustration, the seasons come and go. Just how he expresses this frustration at its ultimate comic moments won't be revealed here, but let it suffice to say that he becomes the victim of his own overwrought imagination.

In Vigil, Panych proves to be a master of one-liners, which elicit laughs not just because of the choice of words, but because of the unexpected nature of the statements. Kemp expresses his strange view of the world, and of the circumstance in which he finds himself, with remarkable candor. They are lines we would all sometimes love to utter at bothersome relatives, but daren't. Henry captures the silence of an aging, reclusive woman to perfection. Her face mirrors not only bewilderment at her nephew's constant stream of words and his odd behavior, but she also displays an ability to connive him into staying. It is a wonderful performance.

While there appears to be animosity between the two, the final outcome is an unsentimental human connection that comes as a surprise. In fact, Panych builds in several surprises into the second half of the Vigil, one of which is a bit macabre—shades of Hitchcock's Psycho—which make this tale of two discontents reach a quite natural and dare one say "happy" ending.