The Thing about Jellyfish
Based on the Novel by Ali Benjamin
Adapted for the Stage by Keith Bunin
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
A bright, curious, talk-a-mile-a-minute seventh-grade girl learns a life lesson that “sometimes things [even very bad things] just happen.” To reach that important conclusion, Suzy must also ask herself, “What can jellyfish teach us about being human?” as she confronts traumatically sad events suddenly thrust upon her at such a young age.
To answer a gnawing question that haunts her, Suzy employs the silent world of her incredible imagination to dive into oceans deep, to time travel through turning-point moments of her still-short life, and to meet a host of “experts” who walk through her mind’s door to come to her aid. Berkeley Repertory Theatre presents Suzy’s visually stunning, surprisingly funny, and achingly heartfelt journey in a world premiere of Keith Bunin’s stage adaptation of The Thing about Jellyfish based on the 2015 National Book Award novel by Ali Benjamin.
Suzy finds wonder in everything in nature around her, and she is quick to excitedly share her wikipedia amount of rapidly spouted knowledge with whomever is near her. She appears to know all there is to know about mud, sweat, rabbits, or skinks (small lizards that poop out their tails). Kids often cruelly make fun of her for her unstoppable spewing of facts — that is except for her best friend since kindergarten, Franny.
As she is about to enter middle school, Suzy’s world erupts. Not only has her dad moved out because her parents are divorcing, Franny dies in a drowning accident while on a family vacation off the Maryland shore. Knowing that Franny was an excellent swimmer, Suzy cannot think how such a thing happened unless … unless she was stung by a jellyfish. After all, she researches, 150 million people are stung by jellyfish every year (one out of every 46.6 people); and since some jellyfish are very poisonous (like ones from Australia that have been discovered migrating around the world even to the U.S.), doesn’t it figure that one probably stung Franny?
But Suzy has no proof yet. She decides that the question she will answer for an assigned science project is “Why did Frannie really die?” Her hypothesis is that Franny was stung by a jellyfish, but she needs a lot of data that can be gathered and tested before she can prove the conclusion.
In the meantime, the news of Franny’s death along some troublingly, unspoken memories leaves the normally talkative Franny completely mute. Even as parents, her teacher, and the kids at school talk to her and ask her questions, Franny continues for weeks just to look at them expressionless and speechless. But inside her mind (and before us on stage), entire episodes play out of both past events and of her present, internal explorations for answers.
The young Matilda Lawler — already a Broadway and TV veteran at her early age — gives a show-stopping performance as the inquisitive, pensive, yet very energetic and excitable Suzy. As in her mind she recalls scenes ranging from kindergarten through seventh grade, her Suzy automatically becomes age-, voice-, and action-appropriate in totally believable, charming ways to convince us that she is five, seven, ten, or whatever in years. When around others trying to interact with her totally silent exterior, Matilda Lawler breaks our hearts with a stone-faced countenance and eyes that look with a steady, blank stare while we increasingly learn of the turmoil and self-torture that is really going on inside.
In her science teacher, Mrs. Turton, Suzy finds a surprising soulmate in terms of an inbred fondness for probing questions of ‘why’ the world is like it is and in the insatiable drive to find the answers. Christiana Clark is the epitome of a tough-minded, demanding teacher who also has a hidden heart of gold and who knows how to challenge and to love at the same time a struggling student.
But Christiana Clark also steals the show time and again as her roles, costumes, and persona change in a matter of minutes when she walks yet again through the doorway of Suzy’s mind to become various experts Suzy has researched on the Internet. With Google searches using inquiries like” jellyfish expert,” “serious jellyfish expert” and jellyfish sting expert,” in walks a sea life discoverer who also writes haiku, a much-stung by jellyfish swimmer seeking to stroke the waves from Cuba to Florida, and an Hawaiian medical researcher using mice to find a cure for stings. Each is wonderfully portrayed by the versatile, quite hilarious Christiana Clark; and each is rejected as a possible assistant by the picky Suzy.
When Suzy finally searches the Net for “Jellyfish Help,” an Australian professor named Jamie shows up in scuba gear and big flippers; and in him, Suzy finds her helpmate. Robert Stanton is excellent as the ever-present knowledge source, mentor, and friend who provides the imaginary intellectual and emotional support that Suzy is so seeking in order to reach conclusions for the questions so nagging her.
In both her recalling and in her real-time, a number of classmates emerge. Kayla Teruel excels as her bestie Frannie who joins her in little-girl play as a five-year-old, who is in awe as the childhood years pass of Suzy’s knowledge, but who eventually also finds her own voice and interests apart from Suzy., Frannie swims over and again in Suzy’s mind as she imagines her friend’s last, fatal swim.
Lexi Perkel is Aubrey, a classmate less than enthralled with Suzy’s precociousness who also befriends Frannie. Jasper Bermudez is the good-looking class clown who readily takes a dares — one like putting a cockroach on his hamburger before taking a big bite. His Dylan has no patience for Suzy’s on and on and on explanations. More sympathetic to Suzy is her attention-challenged lab partner, Justin (Antonio Watson), a friendly kid who appreciate her scientific mind in the making.
Rounding out the impressive ensemble is Suzy’s dad, Dan (Andy Grotelueschen) and her mom, Meg (Stephanie Janssen). With Suzy, Dan spends their weekly dinners at the local Chinese restaurant talking as much as she once did pre-silence, displaying much the same intellectual curiosity as his daughter. He blabs nonstop with the same unawareness — much like Suzy has often had with her friends — of his daughter’s near boredom and non-interest in what he is saying.
Like Dan, Meg tries her best to be patient with Suzy’s silence; but as the Mom living daily with her, Meg also more easily loses patience and gets hurt by her daughter’s ignoring offers for help.
While both actors are clearly talented, the roles of the two parents are the weakest parts of an otherwise inventive and engaging script. Too often the lines given the two are too predictable; and as the play ends, their parting words are a bit like those would expect from television, not a possible Broadway-bound play.
Every other aspect of both the script and the Berkeley Rep premiere production lines up for not only a must-see initial outing worthy of sold-out audiences, but also a play that should have long legs for many other productions across the country, including New York. Tyne Rafaeli’s direction is near flawless in terms of flow and pace as well as the intersections of real-time events with those playing out in Suzy’s mind and memory.
Even more astonishing and breathtaking are the creative elements emerging from director’s vision of bringing the script to life. Against a set that envelopes the stage in tall, glass-like columns (designed by Derek McLane), Lucy Mackinnon has created projections that instantly switch settings as well as videos that take us into watery worlds where gigantic, graceful jellyfish float. McLane’s multiple set pieces themselves seem to float on air as they move in and out and across the stage (often carrying actors in the passing) while Lap Chi Chu’s lighting design captures so quickly and wonderfully the ambiances of classroom, restaurant, playground, or an ocean’s depth. Finally, special kudos goes to the movement direction of Yasmine Lee for the magical, yet heart-wrenching underwater scenes involving a little girl swimming — all performed high above the stage’s floor.
In Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s world premiere of Keith Bunin’s adapted The Thing about Jellyfish, a young girl’s coming-of-age story takes on numerous surprising and impacting dimensions as can only be imagined by a child who is fearless in asking difficult questions and in using her imagination to find the answers. Her final learning is a hard-fought triumph that touches to the core and inspires all who have witnessed the journey.
Rating: 5 E, MUST-SEE
A Theatre Eddys Best Bet Production
The Thing about Jellyfish continues through March 9, 2025, in a one-hour, fifty minute (no intermission) world premiere by Berkeley Repertory Theatre in the Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison Street, Berkeley, California. Tickets are available online at https://www.berkeleyrep.org/ or by calling the Box Office Tuesday – Sunday, noon – 7 p.m. at 510-647-2949.
Photo Credit: Julieta Cervantes
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