Ruth Stage has two weeks at Theatre Row with Ayn Rand’s Night of January 16th, and twelve performances in which the audience settles the verdict. The run began on October 7 and closes on October 18, with Christa B. Allen on trial as Karen Andre.
Rand’s courtroom drama turns on a single death. On the night of the title, the financier Bjorn Faulkner falls from the penthouse of his own skyscraper, and Karen Andre, who was his secretary, his lover and his closest confidante, is charged with his murder. Each performance, the house sits as the jury and decides what it believes.
Director Theo Devaney, who also plays Judge Heath, moves the play out of an ordinary courtroom and into a dark, purgatorial version of reality, where Karen has to answer to guilt, memory and desire as well as to the law.
Maryam Basir plays District Attorney Flint and Matt de Rogatis doubles as Bjorn Faulkner and “Guts” Regan. Hannah Beemer is Lady Justice, and the company also includes Dylan Joseph Lee Catania, Nelson DePasquale, Prince Hamadi, Jim Kempner, Bethany Lanza, Gary Martins, Joe Pandosh, John Pigate and Emily Slass.
The production has been tested on an audience already. Ruth Stage staged the play in April at the Jersey Shore Arts Center in New Jersey, and Catania and DePasquale both appeared in that run.
Lighting is by Christian Specht and costumes are by Alexandra Rose. Neil and Nancy Weidner are associate producers.
The evening runs about two and a half hours, with a 10-minute intermission after Act One and a five-minute pause after Act Two, and the production uses strobe lighting. Performances are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7pm, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm, through October 18, 2026. Tickets are sold through Ruth Stage.
