'Jesus' Production Confronts Prison Life Washington's Powerful Performance Garners Praise

Author: Laura Rockefeller

The production of "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train" that went up in Hepburn Zoo Theater last weekend was dominated by the incredibly intense and compelling performance of Damian L. Washington '03.
He was on stage from the very second that the audience entered the theater, but he never let the energy and vitality that he had found in his character drop for a moment.
In taking on the role of Lucius, a man who murdered eight people and subsequently had a powerful religious conversion in jail, Washington was accepting an immense challenge for his senior work. He fully rose to the test. His performance had a depth which showed that he had truly grappled with all of the contradictions and deep emotions that made up the character of Lucius.
The play revolved around Lucius' interactions with the other inhabitants of the prison: his two very different guards and a new inmate named Angel, a young man who was on trial for the attempted murder of a minister who claimed to be the son of God.
The two plot lines, of Lucius' existence in jail waiting for execution and Angel's trail, ran parallel until the two men encountered each other when Angel was moved into a higher security prison and the two men began conversations through the bars of their prisons.
Washington's imposing presence on stage and wonderful energy set the bar very high for the performances from the other actors in the piece, but, for the most part, the cast was able to keep up the pace and the energy of the piece.
Sometimes the scenes between Angel (Ulises Zanello '03) and his attorney Mary Jane (Nell Wright '05), lacked some of the power and palpable emotion that made the scenes involving Lucius so forceful. However, their scenes were challenging because they were often explaining legal points important to the plot, especially in the case of Wright's lengthy narrative monologues.
The atmosphere that director Jacob Zell Studenroth '03 and his designers created in the theater suggested to the audience the claustrophobia and feeling of oppression that comes from being behind bars.
The unusually small audience, packed with people off of the lengthy waiting list who were sitting on the floor and in the aisles, was completely enclosed by a heavy chain length fence.
The lighting was dim, even before the house lights went down, and there was loud rap music playing with a heavy beat when the audience entered the space. The atmosphere was gloomy and uncomfortable.
The play was an interesting exploration of the disgraceful problems in the American judicial system and the horrible things that go on once prisoners have been put behind bars, away from the eyes of the public.
A good balance was struck between showing the audience enough of the violence and horror to get across the director's point upon them, without reaching the point of being so much that the audience was desensitized.
The cast and crew of the piece did a very thorough job of creating and giving life to the horrifying world of a maximum security prison and especially to the complex characters who inhabit it.