If you happen to’ve ever been a middle-school woman whose greatest pal drifted away (perhaps as a result of she grew to become enthusiastic about boys and also you didn’t, or she acquired sucked into the favored crowd and her values appeared to vary), then you’ll be able to establish with Suzy, the central character in Ali Benjamin’s young-adult novel “The Thing About Jellyfish,” which is now a fantastically stage-designed world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
The theatrical adaptation, written by Keith Bunin and directed by Tyne Rafaeli, is a lot greater than only a story a few precocious woman whose former bestie, Franny, out of the blue drowns once they’re in seventh grade. Unpopular Suzy (she talks an excessive amount of and doesn’t attempt to slot in) is left with unanswered questions concerning the methods of the universe. Franny was an ace swimmer. How might she drown? wonders Suzy. There have to be a logical rationalization!
Suzy can also be left wracked with guilt for one thing she did to Franny in fifth grade.
However there’s extra right here than a story of a childhood friendship that ends in tragedy. In her quest to search out a solution to the lingering query of how and why Franny drowned, brainy Suzy has stopped speaking fully and, emotionally remoted from schoolmates and fogeys, vows to determine all of it out.
She gloms onto a idea. Franny was stung by a jellyfish. “Things don’t just happen for no reason,” Suzy causes, and it’s a protracted, emotional journey for her to study not nearly science but in addition about dwelling with the recognized and the unknown.
Suzy’s idea leads her into an imaginative world of her personal, through which she immerses herself in a examine of jellyfish with the assistance of on-line authorities—and finally an avuncular Australian deep-sea diver—a few of whom could or might not be merchandise of her personal creativeness.
What stands out on this manufacturing isn’t a lot Suzy’s at instances labored quest however relatively the scenic design (by Derek McLane, with lights by Lap Chi Chu).
A stage initially clear and empty, bordered by floor-to-ceiling glassy, framed panels, morphs into an ever-changing visible setting: floating jellyfish of all sizes, color-saturated summary patterns, pc information that Suzy is finding out, a panoramic forest, the cosmos and extra. So entrancing are these masterful projections that it makes you surprise if old style stage design will ultimately be extinct.
As Suzy, Matilda Lawler is pretty credible as a child at varied levels of her life, however with solely two types of expression: throughout her post-traumatic I-refuse-to-talk scenes, she’s tight-lipped whereas staring into the eyes of her scene companions, however registers nothing greater than blank-faced depth; in any other case, she’s chattering nonstop, about all the pieces she thinks and is aware of and discovers and feels, in the way in which that artistic, hyperactive children can do, however it grows wearisome.
In a number of roles, Christiana Clark, left, pictured with Matilda Lawler, is superb in “The Thing About Jellyfish” at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. (Julieta Cervantes/Courtesy Berkeley Repertory Theatre)
Nonetheless, Kayla Teruel’s lithe little Franny is especially expressive and convincing, and terrifically swish, on the varied ages she performs, and Christiana Clark, in a number of roles—together with a terrifying science instructor, an obsessive long-distance swimmer, Franny’s grief-stricken Mother—is positively good. And gangly Robert Stanton because the Australian underwater knowledgeable who helps Suzy perceive the elusive jellyfish, and different, extra necessary considerations, is a delight.
At backside, although, Benjamin’s novel is a kids’s e-book. You’ll study heaps about jellyfish (apparently they’ve been round for 600,000,000 years!), you’ll be dazzled by the fantastic thing about the design, you’ll doubtless establish to 1 diploma or one other with Suzy, you’ll have some existential concepts to think about. However the entire story feels simplistic. Superbly rendered and well-acted, “The Thing About Jellyfish,” like its title, looks as if a play for kids.
“The Thing About Jellyfish” runs by means of March 9 in Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets are $25 to $134 at berkeleyrep.org.
