‘The Drop Off,’ new play at NJ Rep about living with the challenges of dementia, rings true

JORDAN RYDER

Joyce Sylvester, left, and Chantal Jean-Pierre co-star in “The Drop Off” at New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, through Nov. 23.

“I’m not staying here!” declares senior citizen Delphina as she arrives at her new apartment in the Deer Lakes Assisted Living facility, in Las Vegas.

“Deer Lakes! Now where’d they get a stupid name like that?” Delphina asks.

No, this is not going to be an easy move to make.

Delphina is one of the two main characters in James Anthony Tyler’s “The Drop Off,” which is currently being presented by New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, in its world premiere. The other is her daughter Allain, who, we soon learn, is dealing with major problems of her own.

Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg and featuring a cast of four, “The Drop Off” offers many moments that will feel like they are taken right out of real life, for anyone who has gone through this kind of situation in their own family. Tyler gives his story a little bit of melodrama and a lot of humor, and ends with a touch of hope, but he doesn’t sugarcoat the realities of Delphina’s life. A new chapter is beginning for her and — there is no way around it — it is going to be a rough one.

Delphina (played by Joyce Sylvester), who appears to be in the early stages of dementia, is scared, angry and confused. She wants to keep living with the divorced Allain (played by Chantal Jean-Pierre), but her condition is getting worse, and Allain — who has a full-time job, and can’t be with her all the time — feels that this move is necessary.

JORDAN RYDER

Joyce Sylvester, left, and Harmony Harris in “The Drop Off.”

Delphina is horrified that the mini-kitchen in her apartment doesn’t have a stove or oven. “I ain’t never been in a place where I couldn’t bake,” she says. But of course, full kitchens are too dangerous for Deer Lakes residents to have.

Also, Delphina regards the facility’s other residents as “old biddies (who) look so old you can’t even tell what they looked like when they was younger, they so wrinkled.” She can’t see herself as one of them. Yet it is, sadly, time for her to join their ranks.

Sylvester gives an impressively well-rounded performance as Delphina — the kind of woman who has strong opinions and speaks her mind with fierce honesty, but is now becoming unsure of herself, and the world around her, and can’t stand it.

She has always been a survivor. But can she survive this?

Complicating everything is Allain’s gambling addiction. She has lost much of her own money, and her mother’s, and assisted living is expensive. Delphina has some money left — enough to keep Allain from being evicted from her own home as Delphina moves into her new one. But Delphina, worried that Allain will gamble it away, is reluctant to give it to her. At one point, Sonnenberg, in a very effective move, bathes the set in glowing neon light to suggest the temptation that gambling still holds for Allain (though she seems to have the addiction pretty much under control, at this point in her life).

Two other characters represent the new possibilities, and new challenges, that are waiting for Delphina at Deer Lakes.

Mimi (Harmony Harris) is an aide who is sweet and helpful, but also — Allain can see — quite firm and manipulative when it comes to getting Delphina to do something she doesn’t want to do. Mimi encourages Allain to leave Delphina alone, so she can begin to adjust to her new home, on her own. But Allain, understandably, resists.

JORDAN RYDER

Joyce Sylvester, left, and Niambi in “The Drop-Off.”

Meanwhile, Crystal (Niambi) is another Deer Lakes resident, in a similar or possibly more severe stage of dementia. (She repeats the same stories, not realizing she just told them, more than Delphina does.) She is kind and friendly and represents the positive side of what is available to Delphina at Deer Lakes. The two begin to develop a bit of a bond, even though Crystal’s condition (and, to a lesser extent, Delphina’s) makes it difficult for them to have a smooth conversation.

I can’t say I found the money/eviction plotline — much of which involves Allain’s increasingly distressed phone calls with her unseen landlord — to be all that interesting or involving, though Tyler does resolve it with a clever twist.

But especially due to Sylvester’s performance, “The Drop Off” works quite well as a compassionate glimpse into the daunting challenges, related to dementia, that so many families face these days. Or — given the depressing statistics — will have to face, sooner or later.

New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch will present “The Drop Off” through Nov. 23. Visit njrep.org.

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