It is Saturday morning. Your younger sister woke up earlier, so obviously she gets dibs on what you’re watching. Instead of Zoro, or Angel friends, you are stuck with Superbook, the one with the robot. You complain at first, but eventually pay just a bit of attention. The Bible might actually be interesting. What you don’t know is that the feeling you experienced almost every Saturday watching Superbook, or any other Bible story reenacted (and there were many) was a feeling you would always quietly associate with Saturdays.
That is exactly what watching Journey with Jonah feels like.
Staged by Chemichemi Players at Manyunyu Theatre, the script, put together by Julissa Rowe, is an adaptation of the Bible story we all know, Jonah’s refusal to go to Nineveh, his wandering in between, and his eventual arrival. The elements come together beautifully, almost uncannily so.
What continues to impress me about Chemichemi Players is their use of space. Despite the small venue, the manipulation of it is genuinely good, your eyes and neck are kept consistently working, stretching left and right just enough to stay engaged, though not so much that you leave requiring medical attention. The props were creative; the satin sheets representing waves and the jaws of the whale were particularly impressive to me.
The writing had rhythm, which came out clearly a bit too later on. You can hear it clearly in certain stretches of dialogue, and then you lose it in other places, which really felt offputting because then you wonder why it was not consistent if it was deliberate. In keeping up with the writing, the decision to use animals to tell the story was a smart one. Inclusivity and all that.
The acting was A1, with actors taking on multiple roles seamlessly, no character bled into another. Some moments tipped into melodrama, and unlike the good kind that makes you lean forward, this was the kind you notice and quietly file away. To their credit, the stronger scenes around those moments were good enough to paper over the cracks.
The audience interaction was a highlight, particularly how the children’s attention was held throughout. I can vaguely hear yes, mamma somewhere in the back of my mind as I go about my day.
The creative choices in this production felt very deliberate, and for a one-hour play that makes complete sense. You cannot afford to defer emotion or bury your revelations for a big dramatic twist later. Every choice has to be intentional, every moment has to earn its place immediately. For an hour, it was Saturday morning again, coming in skeptical and leaving converted, sound familiar, Jonah?
