After this solo show's premiere in 2017 was curtailed due to its leading—make that its only—actor taking ill mid-monologue, the immediate dramatic question at his comeback a year later was whether Stacy Keach would stay the course for the duration of Jim McGrath's 90-minute portrait of Ernest Hemingway on "a day when he didn't kill himself." Not only does Keach do so with energy undiminished, he navigates the contradictions of his persona's relentless pursuit of redemption through artistic productivity, whatever the cost (including four failed marriages, three wars, harassment by two governments and countless debilitating injuries), with introspective humor and insight to convey us on a journey through the fears and triumphs of the 20th-century author whose laconic tales of thrilling adventure continue to be copied globally by would-be scribblers to this day.
