Stage Review - Life on the Moon (Baker Theatre Workshop)

Stage Review - Life on the Moon
Presented By: Baker Theatre Workshop - Seattle, WA
Show Run: December 08 - December 22, 2025
Date Reviewed: Monday, December 8, 2025
Run Time: 2 Hours (including a 15-minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Patrick Hogan

LIFE ON THE MOON: a review in three parts 

Part One: The Rehearsal 

Something special was going on in the rehearsal room for Life on The Moon, a play by Anna Tatelman, having its West Coast premier this month, produced by Baker Theater Workshop. 

It was a little more than a week before opening night. Director Jeremy Radick stopped actors Adam Nyoff (as 20-year old Spencer) and Sean Vale (as Spencer’s father Bruce) mid-scene and told them to “connect less.” 

That seemed unusual. In acting class, they tell you to listen and connect. But it made sense. The play, and particularly that scene, is about a family having trouble communicating. The press release reads, 

“Life on the Moon is a socio-political family drama about Spencer, a young infantryman in the U.S. army, returning home for Christmas to visit his parents and Piper, his 18-year-old sister with autism. As Spencer and his parents struggle to celebrate the holiday, it's Piper who notices what everyone else misses, but is unable to communicate her observations or frustrations.”

Part Two: The Interview 

Earlier in that same evening I discussed the play with Tatelman and Radick at the Hall on Occidental, just around the block from the ReAct Theatre space, where the rehearsal took place and the show is being presented. 

Tatelman said the play is “seventy-six percent family autobiographical,” based on her having a brother with autism. “Glass Menagerie meets Rain Man, was another description. 

We talked about what audiences might make of Piper and whether the character might meet people’s expectations, or be in line with their experiences. “It’s a common theme that if you’ve met one person with autism, then you’ve met one person with autism,” Tatelman said. “I definitely cannot say that the next person you meet with autism will look like [Piper] but I hope it does help give a broader representation to the spectrum.” 

Genevieve Gay, who plays Piper, is autistic. “It was important that Piper be “not just a collection of Traits,” per Tatelman, “she’s a person first.” Radick said, “It was a deliberate choice to cast someone who is neurodivergent.”. 

I asked Radick if it is a challenge to direct. He said, “I don’t think it’s a challenge,” as he directs every actor “according to who they are and according to the type of artist they are … It required less adjustment than I thought it was going to … once you learn their technique, then it’s really not that much of a challenge.” 

The challenges that matter, then, are the ones that play out on stage. 

Part Three: Opening Night 

Along with Nyhoff, Vale, and Gay, the cast of four includes Elizabeth Dilley as Helen, the mom. They did great ensemble work creating a family that was very, very specific, and at the same time universal. You could find yourself in it. 

It’s that thing that happens in families or in any kind of ongoing groups – friends, classmates, co-workers. Here we all are, doing the things we always do, reacting in the ways we always react. Round and round we go. Could there be a transformation, or even just the beginnings of a shift? 

You can see how they could benefit from a change. Spencer is way more wound up than is merited by disagreements with dad over Christmas decorations. You can tell something is bubbling. 

Mom and dad manage a touching moment amid one particularly high-pitched evening where there literally is an alarm going off. But much of the time they are at odds over how to respond to Piper. 

Piper is happy when things are just so, but when the others raise their voices or seem slightly off, it upsets her. She responds in her way but the others don’t always get what she is trying to convey. And that brings more frustration. Dad has his practiced techniques to suss out what is wrong, but he doesn’t always get it right. Most often it is Spencer who connects. The two have some beautiful moments, including one where they stand facing each other, holding hands with arms outstretched, like two power lines with the electricity circuiting back and forth. 

There are so many remarkable things about Gay’s performance, including her idiosyncratic manner of speaking, and her perseverating. Similarly, Nyhoff has a show-stopping monologue near the end. But to say more about either might risk spoiling the opportunity to experience it for yourself, which I recommend. 

 Photo credit: Cat Brooks