Teens Ana (Gabby Beans) and Jonah (Hagan Oliveras) explore their burgeoning sexuality in Roundabout world premiere (photo by Joan Marcus)
JONAH
Laura Pels Theatre
Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre
111 West 46th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through March 10, $76-$138
212-719-1300
www.roundabouttheatre.org
“Why are you fixated on me?” Ana (Gabby Beans) asks two of three guys who are fixated on her in the world premiere of Rachel Bonds’s Jonah, continuing at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre through March 10. It’s easy to become fixated on Ana, and on Beans, in the meticulously rendered production, which follows a woman through approximately three decades as she faces tragedy and trauma and wrestles with her faith.
The hundred-minute play takes place in Ana’s bedroom at three distinct times in her life. Wilson Chin’s set features a bed to the left, a small table where Ana works to the right, and a door in the middle where the men come and go but Ana never goes through, as if she is trapped. All the characters are damaged, but the men find solace in their relationship with Ana, fiercely dedicated to survival and her own solace.
In the first scene, the sixteen-year-old Ana meets the seventeen-year-old Jonah (Hagan Oliveras), who has a major crush on her. They both go to the same boarding school, and they both are virgins, soon sharing their sexual fantasies with each other.
Like the biblical figure, Jonah is questioning the existence of a higher power. Jonah asks Ana if she still believes in God, but she’s not sure. They might not believe in God, but Ana, who is Catholic, and Jonah, who is not, pepper their speech with references to God and Jesus, in frustration, anger, and joy as they contend with different types of pain.
Step-siblings Ana (Gabby Beans) and Danny (Samuel Henry Levine) try to cope with an abusive father in Rachel Bonds’s Jonah (photo by Joan Marcus)
The next male who shows up in Ana’s room is her protective stepbrother, Danny (Samuel Henry Levine), who is being physically and psychologically abused by his father. Whereas Ana is studying hard and wants to become a writer, Danny is a gruff dude who has no interest in books or school. Ana tells him that her “American dream” is “getting into college and getting the fuck out of here,” but Danny is just trying to survive day to day and doesn’t want Ana to leave. “Don’t you want to stay together?” he says, then asks her to hold him to help calm him down, perhaps a little too close.
Years later, at a writer’s retreat, Ana meets Steven (John Zdrojeski), a former Mormon who brings her food and can’t stop talking about his various physical ailments. Like Jonah, he asks her, “Do you still believe in God?” Steven has a unique perspective on religion, as well as on sex. “Can you still fantasize?” she asks him, and he admits, “There’s definitely still shame lurking around some corners, but —.”
A twist at the end not only furthers the links between Jonah, Danny, and Steven but explains the name of the play.
Bonds (Five Mile Lake, Sundown, Yellow Moon) writes sharp, incisive dialogue that crackles, sparks, and surprises. Director Danya Taymor (Pass Over, “Daddy”) expertly guides the play through its multiple time periods despite the set and Kaye Voyce’s costumes never changing. Amith Chandrashaker’s lighting and Kate Marvin’s sound reverberate to announce narrative shifts.
Steven (John Zdrojeski) is one of three young men obsessed with Ana (Gabby Beans) in Jonah at the Laura Pels Theatre (photo by Joan Marcus)
Zdrojeski (Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Before We’re Gone) channels Jimmy Stewart as the goofy Steven, Levine (The Inheritance, Kill Floor) gives just the right heft to Danny, and gamer and actor Oliveras is sweetly innocent as the tender-hearted Jonah.
But it’s Tony nominee Beans’s (I’m Revolting, Anatomy of a Suicide) show all the way. She’s extraordinary as Ana, onstage the entire show; you won’t be able to take your eyes off her as Ana deals with the lousy hand she’s been dealt.
Early on, she tells Jonah, “I don’t have to do anything. I do what I want,” and that’s the mantra she lives by. She’s not looking for sympathy, nor is she blaming anyone else for what has happened in her life. She keeps on fighting, even as she starts to realize that opening up and depending on someone else is not necessarily a bad thing. Beans captures these emotions with a powerful determination while also displaying the softer side that Ana hides.
Whether you believe in a supreme being or not, you’ll come away from Jonah believing in Ana, and in Beans.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]