Playwright Robert Holman has been at the vanguard of new writing for over 30 years. His latest play, Jonah and Otto is being given its world premiere by The Royal Exchange Theatre. Presented in the intimacy of the Exchange studio, this stunning new play is about the chance encounter between 26 year old Jonah and 62 year old Otto. It is directed with great sensitivity and skill by Clare Lizziomre and features in the two roles, Andrew Sheridan, a highly talented and exciting young actor as Jonah and the distinguished, veteran actor and director Ian McDiarmid as Otto.
The sparse set, complete with a single barren tree, and the interaction of the two characters immediately bring to mind Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, (coincidentally recently revived at the near by Library Theatre).
Jonah and Otto’s relationship appears to have been conjured out of thin air and indeed for most of the play it is the younger of the two men who casts a spell over the other. Holman never explains what has brought the two men together. Superficially it could be interpreted that Otto, a disillusioned clergyman has stumbled across Jonah in a secret garden in the search for cheap sex. However, the poetic nature of the writing and the heightened use of metaphor, indicate that one of the functions that Holman intends of his characters is that each should serve as the other’s confessor, tormentor and spiritual guide. They chide and contradict each other in equal measure and one is never quite certain if they totally believe what they say. But, as I’m sure Holman does, we end up caring about these characters and allow them during the course of the play to enter and become a part of our lives.
Otto at the beginning of the play announces that he “does not believe in God, because God does not believe in him.” By the end of the play he has learnt in 24 hours more about himself and his relationship with God than he has hitherto managed in an entire lifetime. An actor of exceptional depth and quality, MacDiarmid is outstanding in portraying every detail of his character’s pain and self loathing and is matched by Sheridan who gives an excellent performance as the deeply troubled young man.
At the end of the play Otto declares that “Our doubts are our passions.” In this one line, Holman perfectly captures both the mood and the real meaning of the play. Although they have spoken freely and at length to each other, neither has completely broken away from the loneliness that unites them and haunts their lives.
Like a good meal, Jonah and Otto is a play that should be savoured and ideally seen more than once.
Jonah and Otto runs at The Royal Exchange Theatre until 5 April 2008.
