REVIEW: Jonah (Studio Theatre)
It’s on my list to hit all of Studio’s mainstage shows this year. I’ve been writing these theatre reviews for more than three years now, and despite that house being fairly close to my neighborhood, I seem to continually miss out as other companies get on my radar sooner. (In fairness, many of their shows have not heavily featured local actors, so I’ve sometimes felt indifferent in doing so.) But if there’s something consistent I’ve heard from the grapevine, it’s that their material keeps being excellent. Nonesuch was more apparent than in January’s exemplary Octet, and after a broadly acclaimed New York run, another buzzy production comes to town by the name of Jonah. But this creative team has ample connection to DC of late: playwright Rachel Bonds has premiered works at Studio before, and director Taylor Reynolds was recently seen at Arena’s Fremont Ave (and Studio’s own Colored Museum before then). Her style turns sharp writing into effusive adventures, and Jonah looks to be a whale of a time in this regard.
Book
Rachel Bonds’ work is a catastrophic look at ever-spiraling Bad News, but its tender heart is revealed through its bookending interactions. The story follows — non-linearly — a woman named Ana, through three key phases of her life. She begins as a younger teenager, and through various time jumps, ends up a dazed and distant author. The deciding element that moves everything is a rugged and uncomfortably complex relationship she finds herself trapped in, due to circumstances she is otherwise unable to escape. This burns a little slowly, the show is about two hours with no intermission, and it sometimes feels like the show needs to drop a bomb to keep everyone aware that something is happening. But I found these revelations valid and striking, if not too well telegraphed. Knots in your stomach don’t even begin to get untangled until well into the third act, and Ana is impossible not to connect with, even if you have no trauma of the same sort. The side characters are brilliant, too: the title character is slippery and playful, but believably awkward. Danny, her step brother, is grimy and disturbed, and Steven becomes a breath of fresh air in a piece dogged down by humid woe. His entrance in Ana’s adult life becomes a flashpoint of mutual trauma and opening up, allowing the show to end on a tender note that leaves plenty of room for damaged optimism. 8/10
Acting
Ismenia Mendes’ Ana is rooted in layered waves of pensive maturity, even in her younger turns, and creates the warm, beating heart of the piece. She is addictive to watch, an urge only intensified by Quinn M. Johnson’s Danny. An utterly mortifying performance, he is stunning in his hate-ability in ways I can hardly put into words. Let that be a testament to its memorability. 10/10
Production
Word of warning: don’t sit to the far stage left if you can help it. Reynolds’ direction is generally precise and intentional in Jonah, but from my vantage point I missed out on a (and nearly missed another) very important scene. The heft of this one moment massively outweighs the other 90% of the show that was visible, and this lapse in immersion is the only time I can remember my attention being shaken. This is to say that the show remains particularly effective in its messaging. Reynolds also utilizes motion in a dreamlike way, between scattery aisle-running and jerky, sudden swoops into doors and windows. Though Sibyl Wickersheimer’s bedroom set feels pretty plain (and sort of obstructive at times), there are moments where it gets illuminated particularly sharply by Andrew Cissna’s lighting design that is as visually available as Fabian Obispo’s sound design is aurally. 6/10
Viz
The title nor staging do it any favors to evoke the mind of any ideas. But: the program art leaves some intrigue on the table. It features a papery cutout of a person, almost like an anonymous figure who hasn’t been mentally unlocked yet. It subtly focuses on the question of who is really in Ana’s life. As for the show ambience, it’s just a bed on a thrust stage, with some classic indie girl tunes on the aux. 5/10
Verdict
Jonah is a tough, often jaw-dropping watch that is made worthwhile through two incredible central performances. 29/40
