Randuwa II: Theatre J: This Much I Know

"This Much I Know" by Jonathan Spector is a play about ideas. It bounces between eras, and characters and continents on a journey to discover the nature of culpability. In one corner you have a married couple who work for a university and whose lives are up-ended when the wife kills a young man on a bicycle are the way to work. The accident is deemed unavoidable and not her fault, but she cannot let it go. On her path to reconciliation she travels to Russia in search of a family mystery involving Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter. Her husband is left alone, still teaching a seminar on meta-cognition and coaching a young man named Harold who reveals to the professor that he is the hear apparent of the largest white supremacist cult in the country. While three actors move the play along, they do so in the service of dozens of characters.

Each actor is an utter joy to watch, and you have to watch them all like a hawk to keep pace with the intricate ballet of ideas presented. Fourdis Bamji is new to the DMV though he has a long and distinguished resume with major theatre companies all across the US and London. I knew him from a pair of guest roles on Law and Order from just over 20 years ago. In some ways the play revolves around his main character of Professor Lukesh. His performance ran the gamut was affable to sinister as he jump from the professor to Stalin and others. Dani Stoller plays all of the female roles notably managing her own split personality between Natalya the contemporary English Prof/writer and Stalin's daughter. I recently saw her play Emma Goldman in Signature's production of "Ragtime" and the glimpse of her tremendous stage presence there and fully blossomed in this play. She is a joy to watch. The best, however, goes to Ethan J.Miller. I first saw young Mr. Miller in "Watchers on the Rhine" at Arena Stage in 2017 when he play one of two teenage sons of the Muller family. A nothing role with little dialogue. Then he resurfaced this past October in "The Chosen" at 1st Stage and it was WOW! In the interim Little Ethan went off to the University of Minnesota and got tangled up with the good folks at the Guthrie Theatre there and learned himself some acting skills. As impressed as I was with his performance at 1st Stage--his chameleon-like snap of your fingers transitions between over a dozen characters of many ages and a woman or two tossed in for good measure were simply mesmerizing. He's quickly joined the ranks of a small handful of actors whose roll in a play or musical make it a must see for me. I will not be surprised if this young man outgrows the DMV in short order.

The staging and set design were simple and effective. This is a play that I am going to give a shout out to the director, as well. Kudos to Hayley Finn. Without someone to steer of through line up the middle of this play, it would be easy to get lost amidst the web of ideas and circus of characters.

In the program, after the dramaturg's notes there was a short essay by Rabbi Atara Cohen specifically addressing the play's connections to Theatre J and its mission of presenting plays with Jewish themes, which "This Much I Know" on it's face would seem to lack. However, she contends that in both it's conception and execution it is very much an exercise in Talmudic practice. Specifically, she illuminates the history of the Rabbis of the Talmud's evolution of the understanding of the accidental death within a community. I am so fortunate to live in the DMV with so many amazing theatre companies, actors, directors, designers--recently I read that there are 63 companies of varying sizes operating in the greater Washington, DC region, a number that frankly surprised me! I follow about 35 of them and I knew there were a few more out there, but almost 30 more. Such crazy good fortune.

Update: Press Photos are now available: