reservoir

HEARTBROKEN friends and family have paid tribute to an “amazing” mum-of-three who tragically died after getting into difficulty at a reservoir.

The body of 33-year-old Kimberley Johnson, known as Kim, was pulled from Strinesdale Reservoir near Oldham on Sunday, August 17.

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Emergency services rushed to the beauty spot on the A62 between Oldham and Delph after reports of a woman struggling in the water at around 4pm.

Police sealed off the area while fire crews, paramedics and the specialist water rescue unit battled to find her.

Despite desperate efforts, Kim was confirmed dead shortly after being recovered from the water at 6.25pm.

Greater Manchester Police said there are no suspicious circumstances. A spokesperson confirmed: “Emergency services responded to an incident at Strinesdale Reservoir at around 4:50pm yesterday after reports of a woman getting into difficulty in the water.

“Sadly, the body of a woman was recovered.

“There are no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death.”

The tragedy has rocked the local community, with tributes pouring in for the young mum, who was described as kind, soft-spoken and full of life.

Her close friend Tanya Kennedy told how Kim “always lit up every room” and had been a constant source of support and inspiration to those around her.

Tanya said: “Kim was such an amazing woman, she took me in when I was younger and from there she always treated me like a sister.

“I really wish I could speak to her one last time.

“I absolutely adore Kim and she has been a big role model for me, walking around Rochdale or even sitting at the canal messing about.

“Kim was a really important person to me and I regret not messaging her more or seeing her more often.

“She was one of those people who would tell you as it is but also the most kind hearted, soft spoken person I’ve ever met.

“I am really going to miss Kim, always lighting up every room she walked into.

“My thoughts and prayers are all to the family at this time. Rest in peace babe.”

Friends have since gathered online to share their grief, describing her as “one of a kind” and “taken far too soon”.

In another tribute, Curtis King wrote: “R.I.P Kim Louise Johnson my love and thoughts go out to all your family. A beautiful soul lost way too young.”

Residents in Oldham said the reservoir is a popular walking spot but warned the waters can be treacherous.

One local said: “It’s heartbreaking to hear someone has lost their life there. It looks calm on the surface but it can be dangerous.”

Kim leaves behind her three children, who friends say were the “centre of her world”.

Those who knew her best said she was a devoted mum who worked hard to give her family the best life possible.

The tragedy has sparked fresh warnings about the dangers of swimming in open water, especially during the summer months.

Experts say hidden currents, sudden drops and freezing temperatures can all pose a risk.

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Michael Madsen, the actor who was a staple in numerous Quentin Tarantino films including “Kill Bill” and “Reservoir Dogs,” has died. He was 67

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to The Times that deputies responded to the actor’s Malibu home Thursday morning and found him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at 8:25 a.m. The spokesperson did not reveal a cause of death, adding that foul play is not suspected and Madsen seemingly died of natural causes.

This story is developing and will be updated.

All unhappy families of addicts are unhappy in their own way. Unless, of course, you’re a stage family, overrun with “characters” who don’t so much speak as deliver laugh lines and dispense nuggets of moral wisdom. Those families tend to be all alike, regardless of the superficial differences among them.

Grandparents play a larger role than usual in Jake Brasch’s “The Reservoir,” which opened Thursday at the Geffen Playhouse under the direction of Shelley Butler. But the theater’s ability to turn family dysfunction, be it alcoholism, Alzheimer’s or just garden-variety existential agony, into entertainment and instant illumination, has long been a staple of the American stage.

My tolerance for the artificiality of the genre may be lower than most theatergoers. Some take comfort in hoary comic patterns, souped-up eccentricity and reassuring pieties. Overexposed to this species of drama, I slump in my seat.

Indeed, my patience was as thin for “The Reservoir” as it was for “Cult of Love,” Leslye Headland’s drama about a family breakdown during the holidays that made it to Broadway last season after its 2018 premiere at L.A.’s IAMA Theatre. Neither play is beyond pandering to its audience for an easy laugh.

Serving as protagonist and narrator, Josh (Jake Horowitz), the queer Jewish theater student on medical leave from NYU who wakes up one morning after an alcoholic bender at a reservoir in his hometown of Denver, exhibits the snappy, manic banter of a drunk not able to face up to his problem. Patricia (Marin Hinkle), his long-suffering mother, has had it with Josh’s relapses, but how can she turn away her son who lies bleeding on her couch?

With his mother’s help, Josh gets a job as a clerk at a bookstore as he tries once again to pull his life together. Fortunately, Hugo (Adrián González), his manager, is quick to overlook his lax performance. Apparently, drinking has so scrambled Josh’s brain that alphabetizing books takes every ounce of his strength.

Marin Hinkle, left, Lee Wilkof, Jake Horowitz, Geoffrey Wade and Liz Larsen in “The Reservoir.”

(Jeff Lorch)

I didn’t quite feel as indulgent toward Josh, but not because I didn’t sympathize with his struggles. My beef was that he sounded like an anxious playwright determined to string an audience along without forced exuberance and sitcom-level repartee. (Compare, say, one of Josh’s rants with those of a character in a Terrence McNally, Richard Greenberg or Jon Robin Baitz comedy, and the drop off in verbal acuity and original wit will become crystal clear.)

What gives “The Reservoir” a claim to uniqueness is the way Josh’s four grandparents are conscripted not just into the story but into the staging. Seated in a row onstage, they serve as chorus to their grandson’s travails, chiming in with their own opinions and acting out his description of the way his thoughts compulsively take over his mind, like an unstoppable train or a raging river.

Each also has an individual role to play in Josh’s recovery. Patricia’s mother, Irene (Carolyn Mignini), for example, has been transformed by dementia since Josh has seen her last. She’s always been his favorite grandparent. He fondly recalls baking cookies, playing Uno and singing along to “The Sound of Music” with her. Even when she pulled away after he came out in high school, his affection has remained steadfast.

He would like to connect with her again and fears he has lost his chance. At the bookstore, he reads up on Alzheimer’s disease and hatches a plan to build up the cognitive reserve of all his grandparents by feeding them spinach and keeping them mentally engaged. He’s trying, in effect, to save himself by saving them, but they’re too feisty to be corralled by their unstable grandson.

Irene’s fiercely protective husband, Hank (Geoffrey Wade), an arch religious conservative, is too grumpy. As for Josh’s paternal Jewish grandparents, Shrimpy (Lee Wilkof) is too much of a practical joker with sex on his mind. And Beverly (Liz Larsen), an electrical engineer who doesn’t mince words, is too gimlet-eyed not to see that Josh is focusing on his grandparents to avoid doing the hard work of recovery.

Having been sober for many decades herself, Bev recognizes the narcissism of addiction, the way addicts have a tendency to put themselves at the center of the universe. She offers Josh the tough love that he needs, forcing him to see that a grandparent isn’t just a grandparent but a human being with a complicated history that needn’t be worn like a Kleenex visible from under a sleeve.

Josh sets out to be a savior but ends up getting an education in the reality of other people. Brasch’s intentions are noble, but “The Reservoir” doesn’t plunge all that deep. The play draws out the distinctiveness of the grandparents by ratcheting up their zingy eccentricities. How easily these characters fall into a punch-line rhythm. Larsen has the most consequential role and she imparts just the right note of astringency. But the staginess of the writing makes it difficult for any of the actors to transcend the shtick that’s been assigned to them.

Hinkle brings a depth of realism to her portrayal of Patricia, but the character isn’t fully developed. Whole dimensions of Patricia’s life are veiled to us. Both Hinkle and Gonazález gamely play other characters, but these sketched presences compound the general impression of a comic world drawn without much nuance.

The staging is frolicsome but visually monotonous — a problem for a play that is much longer than it needs to be. More than two hours of looking at the fey-preppy outfit costume designer Sara Ryung Clement prepared for Horowitz’s Josh becomes a kind of fashion purgatory for audience and protagonist alike.

I’m not sure why a production that doesn’t take a literal approach to settings has to repeatedly trot out the front seat of a car. The spry assistance of stagehands, who not only move set pieces but help flesh out the world of the play, is a jaunty touch. But the sound and lighting effects get rather heavy-handed during Josh’s hallucinatory meltdowns. Blame for the inexcusably clunky dream scenes, a writing fail, can’t be pinned on the designers.

Horowitz had the Geffen Playhouse’s opening-night audience in the palm of his hand, but I heard an actor playing his comic lines more than his character. Horowitz, however, is only following the direction of a playwright, who has a harrowing story to tell and needs you to enjoy every tricked-up minute of the zany-schmaltzy telling.