All Nighter review

Scott, Gallagher and Lester in All Nighter. (Evan Zimmerman)

With their lives as college students about to come to an end, four friends and roommates gather on their campus of their Pennsylvania liberal arts college in 2014 for one last cram session — and it's a doozy in All Nighter, a promising new work by Natalie Margolin that dives into the complicated dynamics of female friendship. 

It's a credit to Margolin — as well as to director Jaki Bradley and her cast — that the young women can't be easily described with just an adjective or two. Darcie (understudy Tessa Albertson at the performance I saw), with a teacher job lined up, seems to be the one with her life most in order. Nervous drama student Lizzy (Isa Briones) needs Adderall to get her through the wee hours. More self-assured Jacqueline (Kathryn Gallagher), who is dating a female freshman. comes across as the de facto leader of the group. Does she know that rich girl Tessa (Alyah Chanelle Scott) has done something that may compromise her trust?

Although the plot of All Nighter is slow to unfold, it gives Margolin a chance to lay the groundwork for the revelations that come later. Tessa's credit card goes missing, two of Lizzy's pills have disappeared. For years the gals have been blaming incidents like these on the house ghost, but reality is more mundane.

The repeated arrivals of a fifth character, Julia Lester's excessive, histrionic Wilma, set in motion the unraveling of all the falsehoods and omissions the women have been living with. Lester's character is designed to be a scene-stealer, but her performance is more over-the-top than necessary. 

The strength and, dare I say, heart of All Nighter lies in its unsparing look at the dynamics between four young women who thought they were the best of friends realizing how little they actually know about each other.