Echo Theater Company
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Pulitzer Prize finalist play, Gloria, opened with a bang in its West Coast premiere in the able hands of the Echo Theatre Company. The spare set of open cubicles makes for cramped quarters between three twenty-something executive assistants, but plenty of room for the biting wit, hilarity, and startling quick turn of drama that unfolds in Act I. Avoid any reviews with detailed summaries of Gloria until you see the play. No spoilers here.
As the Internet is gaining ground on all things published, ANI (Alana Dietze), DEAN (Michael Sturgis), and KENDRA (Jenny Soo) are locked in a race to realize dreams of individual literary greatness. Ambition, autonomy, and anxiety are the fuel in their engines; toxic narcissism the exhaust that chokes the air between them. They treat college intern, MILES (Devere Rogers) with mindless disdain. With the exception of the beleaguered magazine fact-checker, LOREN (Steven Strobel), no hint of human kindness interrupts their loathing of self and others. KENDRA is mean, DEAN: pathetic, and ANI, plain cold. Poor, tormented GLORIA (Jessica Goldapple) is the office outcast. Missing her humanity altogether, the self-aggrandizing threesome call her “freak,” and “crazy.”
Other than Strobel (whose monologue in Act I is worth the price of admission), the actors are tasked with double duty, covering a variety of roles to mixed results. Sturgis is so laugh-out-loud funny as DEAN in Act I, his inability to change his persona to delineate his small Act II role of DEVIN is distracting. Jenny Soo suffers the same problem; her Act I KENDRA is quick, raucous, and hilarious, leaving her Act II performance as JENNA wanting. It’s as if these two actors spent all of their artistic equity in Act I.
Alana Dietz doles out just enough persona in each of her three roles to make them shine, painting each one with nuance and specificity. Most agile in the creating of multiple characters in one play is Devere Rogers. His revelation of MILES’ arc in Act I is masterful. On first glance, it seems to be a one-dimensional role; Rogers proves otherwise. Rounding out the cast is Jessica Goldapple who is heartbreaking as GLORIA. In her Act II role of NAN, Goldapple indulges in a bit of navel-gazing, but delivers a key soliloquy like a champion.
Like his previous works, Appropriate (Mark Taper Forum), An Octoroon (Soho Rep), and Neighbors (Public Theatre, Matrix Theatre), Gloria attests to Jenkins’ preternatural talent for writing dialogue that is somehow both heightened and natural all at once. Act I is driven with biting, painful, funny monologues and repartee. Like Appropriate, Act I is a study in well-structured play, while Act II clunks around a bit, looking for its own rhythm. In the Echo’s production, this seems to be due to Director Chris Fields’ missed opportunities of pace to lift Jenkins’ words to their highest potential. It is a stark contrast to his clear vision in Act I.
Make no mistake, the excellent design, mostly fantastic performances, and one of the best scripts among new plays, Gloria is a terrific evening of theatre.
Gloria runs through October 21, 2018.
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