Theater Review by Ron Fassler . . . .
I can’t recall the last time I attended something when, as the lights came up at its conclusion, most of the audience were in twos and threes huddled in conversation discussing what just happened. Jonah, the new play that is having its world premiere at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre, marks my first exposure to Rachel Bonds, a prolific playwright who certainly has a way with dialogue. Funny, profane, penetrating and ultimately moving, the events create a bold tension as they unfold in a non-linear fashion through its 100-minute intermissionless run time. Of the explosion of questions at its finish, one in particular demands an answer: do all of its parts create a successful play? Less than twenty-four hours later that remains a puzzlement.
Under the sensitive direction of Danya Taymor, whose past work I have admired (Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s Pass Over and Will Arbery’s Heroes of the Fourth Turning), the quartet of actors is impressive, especially Gabby Beans. As Ana, the play’s central character, she barely leaves the stage, flipping back and forth between a flighty seventeen or eighteen-year-old and a seemingly more mature young woman (the program notes the time as: “The past and the present. But everything is slippery”). She delivers on the promise of her performance two seasons ago as Sabina in the Lincoln Center revival of Thornton Wilder’s Skin of Our Teeth, for which she received a Tony nomination. She carried that mammoth production on her shoulders and does the same here, though on a smaller scale in a role that requires total commitment and concentration.
Ana is a traumatized young woman who has had a cruel childhood. Her mother, whom she loved, died when she was thirteen leaving her in the hands of a violent stepfather and his two sons. One of them, Danny (Samuel H. Levine), is still in and out of her life in a somewhat abusive relationship, but it’s far more complicated than that sounds. At the start of the play, we are introduced to Jonah (Hagan Oliveras) who is a sweet and tender boy with whom she flirts until it appears they will make love and deflower one another. It is at this moment when the play breaks off into a series of scenes that create a jumble of time and place. It’s also important to note that though he is the title character, Jonah is barely seen again. The third man we’re introduced to is Steven (John Zdrojeski), who appears in the scenes of Ana’s later life as the author of a book that has captivated him. He’s not a stalker, though he comes close to it when the two are thrown into close quarters at a secluded writer’s retreat.
These are the characters and the scenes that ebb and flow through the play. The balancing act is precarious and the emotional drain on Ana is hard not to take seriously or to be empathetic toward. Jonah is pure sweetness and light; Danny is darkness and threat; and Steven is damaged, yet sincere. There is also the question of whether one of them is real or not. After careful examination, I’m on the side of his being in Ana’s imagination. And that’s a bit of a problem and one of the reasons why things don’t add up in the end in a way that feels satisfying, even though Bonds goes to great lengths to explain everything. Offering more than that would result in spoilers, so it’s with apologies I resist further clarification.
There’s also the issue of the play being hindered by an unnecessarily ugly scenic design (Wilson Chin) that does not serve the production. Meant to denote a series of bedrooms, it looks like a Holiday Inn shot in Cinemascope. With its dull-colored curtains that don’t even reach to the floor, it appears nothing like a dorm room or the McDowell Colony-style retreat it’s supposed to represent. It’s also not aided by the dim lighting throughout by Amith Chandrashker. What little costume design is required is handled efficiently by Kaye Voyce.
In spite of these caveats, Bonds has provided a play of intensity that merits a production. The acting can’t be faulted with Levine, Oliveras, and Zdrojeski all doing outstanding work. Oliveras is a delight, emulating pure joy and Zdrojeski fills his character with a quirkiness, that is never cloying or annoying, to spare. Levine, steers things artfully in a difficult role, leaving the audience in perpetual worry for his health and well-being. And even if she isn’t playing the title part, it’s reason enough to see Jonah just for Gabby Beans, who is already on her way to a major career. It will be exciting to see what she turns up in next.
Jonah. Through March 10 at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues). 100 minutes, no intermission. www.roundabouttheatre.org
Photos: Joan Marcus
Cover Photo: Gabby Beans and Hagan Oliveras
