REVIEW: Plumbing the depths
“Explosion of talent” is the phrase I’d usually reserve for a production like 7th House Theater’s musical take on Jonah & The Whale, (playing until December 28 in the Dowling Studio at the Guthrie Theater) but there’s a humble Our Town-vibe to the event that makes the word seem downright unseemly. Say, rather, “symphony” of talent, or, even better, a gifted octet of a cast backed by a remarkable quartet of musicians. That cast is a true ensemble—the eponymous Jonah doesn’t have a song to himself until relatively late in the day (though when he does, David Darrow continues to prove himself —as he did in Theatre Latte Da’s Our Town—a riveting leading man, worlds away from any traditional idea of what leading men should be). 7th House has tweaked the Biblical tale, making Jonah a plumber instead of a prophet, and setting the story in what appears to be the American Depression—or just before it. As his wife, Kendall Anne Thompson is a spectre of beautiful longing, her incredible voice making her angelic presence not just a metaphor. The rest of the company effortlessly creates a teeming world of Pastors, Pirates, Preachers, Best Friends, Aunts—all of them solid actors and strong singers, with Matt Riehle’s calming George and his crazed Preacher popping off the stage at both ends of the performance spectrum.
And the music
I left Mary Fox out of the cast count even though she does one or two smaller roles, because mostly she’s about percussion and her percussion is—now I can safely say it—explosive! The terrific set by Kate Sutton-Johnson is basically one giant instrument for Fox to bang on—in addition to the more traditional kit hidden snugly behind it. She hits both with a precision and talent that serves as the beating heart of the entire piece. The rest of the Band, led by Blake Thomas and music-directed by Robert Frost, fits so seamlessly into the proceedings it wasn’t until they perfectly captured the sound of a crying baby I realized they’d been playing pretty much nonstop since the start of the show. Co-directors Emily King and Tyler Michaels infuse the action with gleeful bursts of theatrical playfulness, even managing to add a twist to the by-now-commonplace let-this-vast-swath-of-fabric-signify-ocean tableau.
The missing antagonist
The only thing working against the piece is its title. Tyler Mills’s book dispenses with the Biblical storyline of the reluctant prophet, replacing it with a more personal tale of sorrow and loss. The Biblical “Jonah” is a wrestling match with metaphysical stakes, and—from a purely structural viewpoint—has one of the great antagonists in Western literature: God. I get how Plumber Jonah running away from his tragedies parallels the Biblical character running away from God, but his adventures—as he wanders further from home and sinks deeper into his grief—start to feel circular and repetitious, in spite of all the talent involved. The songs are catchy and fun—but the lyrics often lose their thread, and we wonder exactly what the character is trying to tell us. This, coupled with the lack of pushback—almost everyone Jonah meets during his travels helps him along his path—occasionally flattens even an 85-minute piece. Late in the play, when the sailor he’s befriended asks if he’s ever going to “deal with” his family, we’re in danger of moving from the poetry of metaphysics to the clichés of self-help. While several lovely scenes show us how haunted our Plumber is by his loss, he doesn’t wrestle those demons, nor does anyone wrestle with him. And Providence, when it finally appears, doesn’t treat him like a metaphysical chew-toy, but is unmistakably benign. Without having seen the piece on the page, it’s difficult to say whether this occasional flatness is a matter of creation or direction. It could be nothing more than a young company finding its feet. There’s a whiff of unintended condescension around a review that basically says, “Great job, can’t wait to see what you do next”—but when we end with Darrow, on his knees, slowly accompanied by the rest of the cast, chanting “God give me the time to grow old,” it’s hard to avoid the issue of the company’s youth. Or to tweak their closing prayer: God grant 7th House the time—and resources—to make more work like Jonah & The Whale.
