Jesus Hopped The A Train
Young Vic 14 FEBRUARY - 6 APRIL 2019 £10 - £40
The Young Vic’s new play comes from American playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis, a Pulitzer Prize winner. Positioned as a ‘dark comedy’ the story follows two central characters: Angel, a Puerto Rican prisoner awaiting trial, and Lucius, an African-American inmate who is awaiting the inevitable capital punishment for his multiple murders.
Lucius is charismatic and bold: a born-again Christian, preaching the word of God and finding happiness in life's small pleasures, such as cigarettes and sunshine. The two men are ordinarily kept in solitary confinement, so the one hour chats they are allowed with each other a day are naturally meaningful and poignant. The characters humanity is exposed through Angel’s speech about what he wants to do when he gets out: actions such as going to a restaurant, or walking freely down the street being amongst the things he misses most. Lucius’ character is instantly likeable, and holds some comical tropes. However, his Christianity fails to save him from his past, and judgement day comes very brutally to a head.
The moral questions in the play remain undefined and blurred. There are a lot of philosophical statements thrown around without any kind of clarity or conclusion. Angel’s lawyer, who is originally shunned by him, eventually hatches a master plan to get him out - which Angel then disregards and admits his wrongdoing in court (spoiler alert). With a play so heavily focused on dialogue, it feels as though there ought to be more of a moral to the story, but there isn’t. In fact, there is a gratuitous use of bad language which is unnecessary and at times awkward, for example the originally funny then slightly uncomfortable opening scene, where “motherfucker” is repeated just maybe 7 too many times, and as a result becomes a bit laborious…
The setting is pleasantly simplistic, which is a testament to the play in that it still manages to be highly engaging. Scene changes are dramatic and intersped with loud crashing and blackouts, reflecting both the environment and the strong characters. What stood out to me was the likeability of these criminals, a difficult task and one which often isn’t well executed. However, a point which ruined this was Lucius’ closing speech to Angel: commenting on his childhood abuse and unaddressed mental health issues. What was clever about the play before this moment was that we liked Lucius despite his flaws: he was the lovable rogue, not the victim. These facts thrown in last minute worked against his likeability as he was trying to play the victim through facts which were no fault of his own, yet do not excuse his actions.
Overall, Jesus Hopped The A Train is a powerful piece of acting, but in my opinion not the best piece of writing. The story is quite hard to follow and the message remains unclear. I feel that with a play this short on cast members and this simplistically done, there really needs to be power behind the words, and a lasting impact of some sort of moral code which the audience can take away with them. Unfortunately, Jesus Hopped The A Train did not provide me with that this time.
OVERALL RATING: ***
https://www.youngvic.org/whats-on/jesus-hopped-the-a-train
