Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s world-premiere staging of “The Thing About Jellyfish” is admittedly two sorts of performs fused into one. The primary is a touching drama, tailored by Keith Bunin from Ali Benjamin’s 2015 novel of the identical title, a few lonely seventh-grader named Suzy who’s grieving the demise of her onetime finest pal and attempting to navigate her manner by way of adolescence and her one-of-a-kind sensible thoughts.
The opposite is a gleaming, high-tech theatrical expertise stuffed with beautiful, crystalline projections, set items in fixed movement throughout the stage and places that change immediately from a suburban house to a Chinese language restaurant to the nether areas of the ever-spinning Web.
The distinction between the intimacy of Suzy’s private story and the flashy theatrical whiz-bang doesn’t all the time serve the emotional through-line of director Tyne Rafaeli’s manufacturing. A rigidity grows by way of the present’s practically two hours (with no intermission) between Suzy’s compelling story and the distraction of all of the energetic visible hyperactivity taking place round her.
What holds all the things collectively is the outstanding central efficiency by Matilda Lawler as Suzy. This gifted younger actor (seen within the HBO sequence “Station 11” and “The Gilded Age”) is on stage for virtually the complete present and powerfully conveys the complexities of a 12-year-old in disaster.
Along with all the standard horrors of the purgatory we name center faculty, Suzy is contending with divorcing mother and father (performed with compassion by Stephanie Janssen and Andy Grotelueschen) and the drowning demise of her finest pal since kindergarten, Franny (a deft Kayla Teruel). Extra than simply the surprising demise, although, Suzy can also be attempting to grasp why she and Franny had begun transferring in several instructions. Whereas Suzy was nonetheless eager about gleaning each fascinating reality about each creature ever, Franny was excited about hair and garments and boys.
In her confusion about a lot in her life, the normally talkative Suzy merely stops talking. She withdraws right into a world of scientific analysis that she hopes will assist her perceive what actually occurred to Franny, and that analysis leads her to one of many world’s oldest, most resilient species: the jellyfish.
Lawler’s Suzy is a poignant mass of fierce mind and crushing vulnerability, of resolute dedication and emotional chaos. She’s as fascinating as she is endearing, and her journey into the panorama of grief is the play’s biggest asset. The opposite younger performers, together with Antonio Watson as Suzy’s enthusiastic lab companion, Lexi Perkel as widespread lady Aubrey and Jasper Bermudez as gross-out boy Dylan, defy all kid-actor stereotypes and are available throughout as fully relatable tweens.
Along with her sympathetic, if emotionally messy, mother and father, Suzy has the assist of an insightful science trainer performed by Christiana Clark, who additionally performs a therapist, Franny’s grieving mother and so many different folks you lose depend. However although there are smart adults round her, Suzy nonetheless feels the necessity to create an imaginary pal who takes the type of a real-life Australian toxinologist named Jamie Seymour, who has a particular curiosity in jellyfish.
Performed by Robert Stanton, Jamie hovers round and helps Suzy faux she’s engaged on a scientific challenge, when actually she’s attempting to type out the feelings surrounding her unresolved break with Franny and the way demise has rendered that break everlasting. However this imaginary relationship is emotionally inert and undercuts Suzy’s emotional progress, which can also be barely derailed by a working time that’s not less than quarter-hour too lengthy.
As technically spectacular as “The Thing About Jellyfish” is, with beautiful photos of jellyfish floating by way of Lucy MacKinnon’s artfully constructed video designs and the sleek athleticism of Franny swimming by way of the sky, all of it comes right down to Suzy. We’re invested on this budding genius reclaiming her voice and discovering a approach to transfer ahead into what is going to undoubtedly be an astonishing, consequential life.
There’s a vibe to “Jellyfish” that’s form of “Dear Evan Hansen” meets the kinetic stage adaptation of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” in the best way that it tries to take an viewers into the whirling thoughts of a teenager outdoors the norm. However really, the magic right here is Matilda Lawler and her heartfelt capability to convey an epic emotional journey with the only of particular results: her honesty, her energy and her extraordinary expertise.
Chad Jones has been writing about Bay Space theater since 1992; theaterdogs.internet.
‘THE THING ABOUT JELLYFISH’
Tailored from the Ali Benjamin novel by Keith Bunin; offered by Berkeley Repertory Theatre
By way of: March 9
The place: Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley
Working time: 1 hour, 50 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $25-$134; www.berkeleyrep.org
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