Everything Beautiful Happens at Night
Island City Stage's Production of Ted Malawer's Play
By: Aaron Krause - May 01, 2026
At times, Island City Stage’s (ICS) touching and believable professional production of Ted Malawer’s engrossing play, Everything Beautiful Happens at Night, transports us to our childhood. Miami-based illustrator Bong Redila’s bright, vivid drawings, clearly projected on a screen, may make us feel as though we are inside a children’s book. Those illustrations, coupled with the playful yet sincere voices of actors Christopher Dreeson and Aidan Paul, bring out the child in each of us. But Everything Beautiful Happens at Night is more than a carefree children’s tale come to life. It is also not solely a story about the relationship between two gay men of vastly different ages.
This layered play invites us to consider serious, thought-provoking themes such as the bravery needed to live authentically, the power of storytelling, and the tension between professional legacy and personal connection. At its core, the play is about loneliness—who we choose to let in, and how we allow ourselves to connect with others. It is also about censorship, both literary and personal, and the struggle to live authentically and remain true to oneself. Ultimately, it considers legacy, our impact on the world, and how we hope to be remembered.
ICS’s production, which runs through Sunday in the company’s intimate black box theater in Wilton Manors, captures both the play’s lighthearted and pathos-filled moments with care under Bruce Linser’s thoughtful direction. The performance lasts about an hour and 45 minutes without intermission.
The set design by Ardean Landhuis, comprising three distinct areas, is spacious, detailed, and realistic. It allows for seamless transitions between locations. A dining table with a yellow tablecloth on stage right suggests a restaurant. Center stage, a dark sofa and cabinets with neatly stacked books establish a lived-in space, while stage left holds a lectern from which Nancy speaks.
The play takes place in mid-1980s Manhattan and centers on Ezra, a gay children’s book author of a Chipmunk and Squirrel series, and his long-term relationship with his high-strung literary editor, Nancy. When Jake, a much younger gay man, enters Ezra’s life, he inspires the author to reflect his personal life in his writing. This puts Ezra at odds with Nancy, despite their decades-long working relationship marked by mutual respect. She fears that Ezra’s readership—children in the 1980s—is not ready to read about fictional animal characters in a gay relationship. She also doubts the literary world will publish Ezra’s revised story, and her concerns ultimately prove correct.
In a subsequent scene, we learn that Ezra has been hospitalized, clinging to life with a serious, unnamed illness. Suddenly alone, Jake directs his anger at Nancy, and Ezra’s future becomes uncertain. Nancy, meanwhile, is forced to confront her biases and what may be her true identity.
The tone ranges from playful to heated, sensual to upbeat. At times, swelling music from a record player (Ezra adores opera) mirrors the rising emotion onstage.
Frankly, the news that Ezra is gravely ill and hospitalized comes rather suddenly. The playwright does not build to this moment by suggesting that Ezra is physically ailing. But what is crystal clear in Malawer’s writing, Linser’s direction, and Dreeson’s strong performance is that the veteran children’s author is lonely and suffering from writer’s block.
Ezra is a sympathetic character, and Dreeson, an award-winning veteran South Florida stage performer, convincingly captures his sadness and vulnerability. With vivid facial expressions of pain and a passionate voice that at times turns pleading, Dreeson brings to life a lonely creative man longing for connection. His needy expression draws the audience in, but he never allows Ezra to wallow in self-pity. The impressively naturalistic performer makes palpable how deeply Ezra cares about his work as a children’s author, his fierce determination to succeed, and how much it means to him to reflect his personal life in his writing. He also reveals Ezra’s playful side; his dark eyes widen as he informs Nancy—his voice laced with mischief—that he “sucked a dick.”
Acclaimed veteran South Florida stage performer Laura Turnbull breathes believable life into the strong-willed Nancy. With a sharp voice and confident expressions, she credibly conveys the editor’s assertiveness, which can sometimes veer into arrogance, impatience, sarcasm, and stubbornness. But she also infuses Nancy with a fierce loyalty toward Ezra; in these moments, her tone softens, revealing genuine devotion. We come to understand that Nancy has long relied on Ezra’s loyalty, and it becomes clear that, by the end, she feels betrayed by him. By conveying both vulnerability and toughness, Turnbull creates a complex character who cares deeply about Ezra—and, in turn, earns the audience’s sympathy.
Aidan Paul, making his ICS debut as Jake, gives the character a youthful, casual demeanor that, coupled with his carnal longing, could make it easy to dismiss him as a sex-obsessed boytoy. But Paul also lends Jake sensitivity and depth, especially toward the end. With credible conviction, his Jake becomes a fierce advocate for Ezra and shows deep concern for his future.
Paul shares strong chemistry with Dreeson. With mussed brown hair and a bruised face after a beating (an offstage incident), Jake asks Ezra in an eager, needy voice to read his children’s book to him. As the lights dim, Ezra reads while projections of the story appear, and the two act out the characters in playful yet sincere voices. In another scene, Jake removes his shirt and sits beside Ezra; the two embrace as swelling music underscores the moment. Elsewhere, dim lighting and circulating disco lights (lighting designer Landhuis) accompany a romantic interlude.
The production also effectively captures the characters’ emotional strain. Nancy, struggling to find the right words, tells Jake, “This is all so—fast. Don’t you think? It seems so—” Jake responds that Ezra probably had “it” for a while, adding, “There’s a test they can do now and—,” before trailing off. The play is set during a time when the medical community did not yet understand HIV and AIDS, only that gay men were becoming gravely ill with what was initially termed Gay-Related Immune Deficiency (GRID). While the crisis is no longer an automatic death sentence, recent health emergencies such as COVID remind us how frightening such uncertainty can be.
The play ends on an uncertain yet serene note. With Ezra still gravely ill, realism and fantasy blur. Dots of light illuminate the stage as a representation of his children’s book appears on the screen, and Ezra and Jake act out its ending as the animal characters.
The play resists a neat conclusion. We are left to wonder about Ezra’s fate and whether his revised, gay-themed children’s book will be published. In an era still grappling with censorship, that uncertainty lingers -- quietly but powerfully.
Everything Beautiful Happens at Night runs through Sunday at Island City Stage’s intimate black box theater, 2304 N. Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors. Tickets start at $45. Call (954) 928-9800 or visit www.islandcitystage.org for tickets and parking information.