'Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train' an explosive, chilling drama
One thing you learn after a few months spent covering crime: when trouble finds a person, more trouble follows. It took less than four months on the Cook County criminal courts beat for me to recognize the unfortunate reality many defendants confront.
Playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis recognizes it, too. It's apparent from the gut-churning opening moments of his intense "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train," an explosive prison drama about a fundamentally decent young man named Angel Cruz who tries "to do a great right by a little wrong" and finds himself incarcerated in New York City's Rikers Island alongside a serial killer nicknamed Black Plague.
It's tough tale underscored by a chilling inevitability subtly expressed by Michael Menendian, director of Raven Theatre's bracing, fiercely acted production.
Like Guirgis' engrossing "The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" (a heady, darkly humorous drama given a passionate production by Gift Theatre earlier this year), "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train" addresses weighty issues. Faith and free will, repentance and redemption, crime and punishment all come under scrutiny in a play that poses tough questions for which simple answers do not suffice. That said, the playwright leaves audiences with more than enough material to generate a provocative conversation. And that's saying something.
A dramatist provocateur, Guirgis uses the vernacular of the street to express his ideas. And while the dialogue may not reach the heights of "Last Days," "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train" is a vivid, intellectually engaging work. Even if it's not always easy to watch.
The story centers on Angel (a highly charged, painfully believable Esteban Andres Cruz), a bike messenger with a year of college and a deeply ingrained sense of loyalty who tries to rescue his childhood friend from a cult. Unsuccessful, he responds by shooting the cult's leader in the buttocks. He awaits trial in protective custody, where he shares the hour he's allowed outdoors each day locked in a cage next to Lucius Jenkins (an unforgettable Bradford Stevens), a perversely charismatic serial killer awaiting extradition to Florida.
The agnostic Angel and the born-again Lucius (how's that for dramatic irony?) spend their hour together debating God, free will and personal responsibility under the watchful eye of corrections officer Valdez (the completely committed Warren Levon), whose moral certainty has made a sadist of him.
Attempting to convert the newcomer, Lucius insists he take responsibility for his actions to get right with God.
People treat faith "like it's some kind of gift," he says. "Faith ain't a gift, it's a decision."
Angel has no interest in reconciling with a Lord he isn't convinced exists. Neither is he interested in taking advice from a man who's committed crimes far more horrific than his own.
Pleading Angel's case is public defender Mary Jane Hanrahan (the tenacious JoAnn Montemurro), who's every bit as jaded as Valdez and just as certain she's right. Rounding out the cast is Greg Caldwell as the amiable D'Amico, a prison guard who befriends Lucius.
The acting is laudable. But it's Cruz and Stevens - the twin pillars who bear the weight of this drama - who most impress. Their richly textured, meticulously crafted performances are absolutely credible and ultimately sobering reflections of the troubled souls that trouble invariably finds.
"Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train"
Rating: 3½ stars
Facts: Location: Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago
Times: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays; through Dec. 6
Running time: About 2 hours, 15 minutes, with intermission
Tickets: $20, $25
Parking: Lot adjacent to theater, street parking available