The Reservoir Supplies a Wellspring of Hope for Addiction

Mar 29, 2026 by Two Sues On the Aisle

By Two Sues on the Aisle, Susie Rosenbluth and Sue Weston

There’s a lot to like in The Reservoir, Jake Brasch’s play, about a young Jewish alcoholic, Josh, who has flunked out of NYU and returns home to Colorado’s Cherry Creek Reservoir, near Denver. He hopes a reconnection with his disappointed mom (Heidi Armbruster) and four doting grandparents (Mary Beth Peil, Caroline Aaron, Peter Maloney, and Matthew Saldívar), three of whom are displaying various stages of dementia, will somehow lead to recovery—his and theirs.

To begin with, the talented and adorable Noah Galvin portrays the protagonist, Josh, as sweet, vulnerable, and well-meaning. He wants to get well but has no intention of sticking to the rehabilitation regimen, thus setting himself—and his family—up for constant failure. He is willing to try anything—except what the experts tell him will work.

For example, he convinces himself that if he can help his grandparents—two of them Jewish, two not—avoid succumbing to Alzheimer’s by building cognitive reserves through education, diet, and exercise, he will somehow prevent his own relapse into alcoholism. While the scenes with his grandparents are cute as can be—how about trying to memorize the names of American vice presidents in reverse chronological order, or helping his 83-year-old grandfather prepare for a second bar mitzvah—they don’t work.

Under the direction of Shelley Butler, the episodes showing Josh’s illness—and his reaction to the relapses—are extraordinary. They ring true and can break the heart. Josh is too old to be forced by those who love him to face the truth and too young for anyone who loves him to give up on him.

Help does arrive from perhaps a most surprising source, and when he accepts it, the interaction between the one who needs the help and the one offering it feels seamless and organic. It’s a reservoir of what love is all about.

When Josh can admit to the impossibility of swearing never again to relapse but only, rather, not to relapse “today,” it feels like a major breakthrough, a reservoir of truth. He will always be in recovery.

Unfortunately, too often, The Reservoir itself lapses into solipsism. Not every memory Josh has needs to be recounted, nor every detail of his life. The truth of The Reservoir, the yearning for family, love, and the willingness to accept help when you can’t do it alone would have sufficed.

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Two Sues on the Aisle bases its ratings on how many challahs (1-5) it pays to buy (rather than make) to see the play, show, film, book, or exhibit being reviewed.

The Atlantic Theater Company’s The Reservoir, at the Linda Gross Theater from February 5 – March 22, received 3 Challahs

Co-Production with Ensemble Studio Theatre & The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation