MIKE PETERS
From left, Dani Nelson, Michelle Liu Coughlin and DeAnna Lenhart co-star in Premiere Stages’ production of “Diversion” at Kean University in Union.
Towards the end of Scott Organ’s absorbing and emotionally resonant play “Diversion” — which Premiere Stages is currently presenting at Kean University in Union, in its world premiere — a young nurse, Mandy, tells her supervisor, Bess, that the way hospital workers were cheered during the pandemic, with New Yorkers clapping and banging on pots and pans from their apartments, inspired her to enter the profession.
Later, Bess reflects to a veteran nurse that she had totally forgotten about that, and is reminded that the brain tends to remember “the shittier stuff.”
“That it does,” says Bess, sadly.
Bess, Mandy and the play’s other characters work in a hospital’s intensive care unit. And the trauma of the pandemic — when patients were dying all the times, and the nurses had to work nonstop — still lingers over them, even though things have gotten back to normal. It must be added, though, that “normal,” for them, is still pretty much a daily ordeal, with long hours, too few nurses for too many patients, and constant emergencies. But it is the life they have chosen.
The play — directed by Premiere Stages producing artistic director John J. Wooten — takes place in a realistically unremarkable lounge (scenic design by Bethanie Wampol Watson), complete with a broken wall clock, where these nurses take their brief breaks. And it does a great job of evoking the overwhelming stress of such a job. (This is a particular busy time for these characters: The play takes place in the weeks leading up to, and during, the holiday season, when intensive care units tend to be busier than usual.)
MIKE PETERS
Jeaniene Green, center, with Lucas Iverson and Edie Salas Miller in “Diversion.”
But “Diversion” is not just a workplace drama. It is also, to a certain extent, a mystery, and it will keep you on the edge of the seat.
Early on, an annoyed Bess (played by Jeaniene Green) tells the four nurses in this unit that there has been an incident of “diverting”: Some opioids, which were supposed to be used as medications, have been diverted (i.e., stolen). The thief could be an addict, or someone looking to re-sell, to make some money. A corporate investigator, Josephine (Michelle Liu Coughlin), is brought in by the hospital’s powers-that-be to get to the bottom of the diversion.
Josephine is a former nurse, though her upscale style of dressing and her way of carefully enunciating everything she says make it clear that she has moved up in the world. She can be breezily casual — “Just forget I’m here,” she cheerfully says — but it is clear that she is also tough and perceptive, and all business underneath her friendliness.
“This shit is hard enough without someone watching your every move,” mutters one of the nurses.
At first, it is not certain that one of the four nurses is to blame: The culprit could be a doctor, or some other hospital employee. For all anyone knows, Bess could be the guilty one. Or there may have been some kind of administrative error.
But later, we learn that after extensive examination of the hospital’s records, it has been determined that, yes, one of these four nurses is definitely to blame.
MIKE PETERS
Michelle Liu Coughlin, left, and Dani Nelson in “Diversion.”
As in any good mystery, there is reason to suspect each of the four suspects.
Mandy (Edie Salas Miller) has a boyfriend who seems to be involved in petty crime, and a father in prison, and she has a tendency to fall asleep on the job.
Mike (Lucas Iverson), who is divorced — and has a crush on Mandy, despite the boyfriend — has a child with special needs whose therapy isn’t covered by his insurance. Mike also inadvertently lets it be known that he knows the street value of a fentanyl patch.
Emilia (Dani Nelson) is having marital problems, and may be traumatized from having to make life-or-death decisions during the pandemic regarding which patients got to use a hospital respirator, when there weren’t enough for everyone who needed one to get one. It is suggested that this could be a type of “moral injury,” with deep psychological consequences.
Amy (DeAnna Lenhart) seems a little too eager to share incriminating information about the others with Josephine, and also has back problems stemming from when she got hurt “hauling bodies” during the pandemic, and couldn’t take time off to heal herself, since the hospital was so busy.
The truth about the diversion is revealed about halfway through the play. The rest of the scenes have to do, mainly, with how far these characters will go to protect each other, or to save themselves, or to get a co-worker in need the help he or she needs. While, of course, tending to an endless series of patients’ crises that demand their attention.
Mistakes are definitely made. But mistakes are also forgiven, here. Each character knows what the other characters have been through, or are going through. Even Bess and Josephine are, ultimately, more caring than judgmental.
And watching this sad but also hopeful drama play out, you can’t help but feel sympathetic, too, toward these everyday heroes.
Premiere Stages will present “Diversion” at The Bauer Boucher Theatre Center at Kean University through Sept. 22. Visit premierestagesatkean.com.
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