“The Harvest”

Recommended *** What would your mindset be if you were asked to leave your home and country, go to the Middle East , and attempt to convert the people to find Christianity? Could you do it? Griffin Theatre Company is now presenting Samuel D. Hunter’s “The Harvest”, a play ( in its Chicago Premiere) that deals with a group of five young people, Missionaries, who have been preparing for this exact mission. The play, 105 minutes, no intermission) all takes place in the basement of a small Evangelical church, in Idaho- and it is in the present!

As the play begins, we see the five characters praying and chanting in several tongues. It reminded me of my visits to an orthodox Jewish Synagogue, where everyone walks around and chants and prays at their own pace. No one can ever peek over to find out what page they are on, because every member of the congregation, it seems, is on a different page. These five were very much like that. After about 8 minutes, they began to get into the story of what they were planning to do and the mission for which they have been preparing for.

We get to observe them “role-playing”, trying to convince each other ( acting as Muslims when needed) to convert and find Christ!

Ada ( Kiayla Ryann) is their leader, and she is of course making the trip with them. Josh ( deftly handled by Raphael Diaz) seems to be the strongest of the five, wanting to show his recently deceased father that he is “the man”. Tom (Collin Quinn Rice) is the weakest of the missionaries, always clinging to his cell phone in order to make his father proud. Denise ( the adorable Kathryn Acosta) and Marcus ( played to perfection by Taylor Del Vecchio) are a married couple who as we find out are pregnant, and so Ada has decided that they will be better off doing office duties and administration work, rather than go from “temple” to “temple” to reach the populace.

Every character has “a story” and Hunter’s script allows us to learn about each in a manner that draws us closer to them. Josh has a sister, Michaela ( sharply done by Paloma Nozicka) who has come back into his life and wants to stop him from leaving home for this “mission”. The last character in the story is Chuck ( Patrick Blashill) who is connected to the church and to the fathers of both Tom and Josh. There are times that we lose what he is saying as despite the solid direction  by Jonathan Berry, Blashill does not always project to the last row ( and the Den Theater is a very intimate space).

The majority of cast members, for the most part understand that idea of projecting to the last row. I had no problems with the exception of the one character. The others are strong and worked well together in taking us along the steps as they prepare to take the planned journey. There are some little surprises along the way, making it understandable that the play has no intermission. Breaking the continuity would make it far harder for the audience to get into what Hunter is saying.  Faith, no matter what it is, never comes easy and as I said, each of our characters has a back story. Ada’s is probably the least to be concerned about, and if one pays close attention you will see that Josh is indeed the main character.

The set (Sotirios Livaditis) truly will remind you of a basement in a church. In fact, I do Santa at St. James Church on the South Side, and the chapel basement looks pretty much just like this set. Heather Gilbert’s lighting was strong and Sarah Ramos does a great job with the sound ( there is a storm that sounds as if you should have brought your umbrella). Lacie Hexom’s props are strong and the costumes (Mieka van der Ploeg) very credible. The ending is quick and abrupt. One of those where many audience members will leave confused about where Josh is going- with the group? And how about Tom? Is he okay? Are the happy couple going to remain happy?

“The Harvest” will continue thru August 25th at The Den Theatre ( upstairs 2B) located at 1331 N. Milwaukee Avenue ( just north of Division/Ashland/Milwaukee Intersection) with performances as follows:

Thursdays  7:30 p.m.

Fridays  7:30 p.m.

Saturdays  7:30 p.m.

Sundays  3 p.m.

Special performance: Monday, August 20th  7:30 p.m. and Saturday, August 25th at 3 p.m.

Tickets run $36  students, seniors and veterans  $31 and are available by calling 773-697-3830 or online at www.griffintheatre.com

Parking is available in the area- meters need to be read as many are free after 6 p.m.

Public transportation is readily available.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go o Review Round-Up and click at “The Harvest”