Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Johanna Day triumphs as JOAN, Stephen Belber’s comprehensive portrait of a woman’s life

• By drediman
• February 18, 2019
• No Comments

Johanna Day in Colt Coeur’s production of “Joan” by Stephen Belber at HERE Arts Center. Photo by Robert Altman.

Luckily, this weekend, I had a chance to catch the penultimate performance of the Colt Coeur production of Stephen Belber’s ambitious new drama Joan at HERE Arts Center. The play recounts the eventful life of a fictitious “regular” woman named Joan. Mr. Belber accomplishes this through a rapid fire succession of non-chronological scenes – some quite significant, others pretty mundane.

That this tapestry of temporally scattered scenes comes together as logically as they do from the audience’s perspective is a testament to Mr. Belber’s skill as a playwright. In many ways, Joan reminds me of another nonlinear portrait of a woman, Tracy Letts’ Mary Page Marlow, which was stage last summer by Second Stage Theater (after a 2016 premiere at Chicago’s mighty Steppenwolf Theatre Company). Whereas Mr. Letts’ mysterious play is more austere and left more gaps in the title character’s narrative – I’d like to think a commentary on the elusiveness of identity – Mr. Belber is able to capture quite comprehensively and conventionally the totality and essence of the spirited but flawed Joan.

Joan was directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt, the artistic director of the Brooklyn-based Colt Coeur, with sensitivity and clarity. As Joan, Johanna Day gave a formidable performance, fully inhabiting the titular character and effortlessly imbuing her with both grace and a tenacity to live with willingness and freedom (sometimes at severe costs). By and large, it was triumphant performance that I feel fortunate to have experienced. Ms. Day was supported by two fine actors – Adam Harrington and Marjan Neshat – who navigated playing the multitude of people in Joan’s life with ease and skill.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

JOAN
Off-Broadway, Play
Colt Couer at HERE Arts Center
1 hour, 40 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed