INTERVIEW: Rupert Simonian stars in ‘Jonah and Otto,’ playwright Robert Holman’s NY debut
Jonah and Otto, a two-hander set to play New York City’s Theatre Row, follows two men — one 26, the other 62 — as they navigate a conversation and realize they have more in common than their age difference may indicate. The production, starring Sean Gormley and Rupert Simonian, serves as the New York debut of playwright Robert Holman. Performances run Feb. 1-25 at Theatre Row’s Lion Theatre.
The plot of the play centers on Jonah and Otto meeting in a garden in southern England, but the particulars of their conversation is under wraps until audience members experience it for themselves. Adjectives like “haunting” and “mysterious” promise some surprising revelations.
Simonian, who recently talked by phone with Hollywood Soapbox, finds his role somewhat auspicious. This week he turns 26, the exact age of Jonah.
“We came about with it when Lost Tribe Theatre was looking for a project to do and discovered that Robert Holman had never been produced in New York before, so we looked into his work,” Simonian said. “We found that Jonah and Otto was one that had been done in recent years and had always been received very well in London and Manchester when it was first on. We read the play and absolutely fell in love with it. I was actually familiar with the play before. I read it a number of years ago — maybe five, six years ago — a couple of years after it had been published. The playwright actually, Robert Holman, gave me a copy of it. I worked with him on one of my first professional shows when I was 19 years old, I think, in London, doing a show there called A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky, and it was actually his opening night gift to me … a copy of the play, which he wrote a very nice little note in it.”
Simonian said it feels like fate that this gift from several years ago has materialized into an off-Broadway production and Holman’s New York debut.
After Lost Tribe Theatre began the project, Firefly Theatre & Films jumped onboard as co-presenter. “Really everyone was so enthusiastic about the play itself, but also that Robert had never been before produced in New York City is kind of incredible to a lot of people,” the actor said. “So when we really found out that we an opportunity to do it, and Robert gave us his blessings, and for me to play Jonah in it, we kind of jumped at it, and it kind of went rolling from there.”
When audience members first see Jonah and Otto, they might notice the age difference between the characters, Simonian said. However, it becomes evident rather quickly that the two men are also separated by their social classes. Jonah is a working-class man from the greater Manchester area, while Otto describes himself as posh.
Playing against Simonian’s Jonah is Gormley, a company member of New York’s illustrious Irish Repertory Theatre. “When Sean decided to come aboard, I remember the first time we sat down and read the play together,” Simonian said. “He brought something to Otto. Even though I had read the play 10, 15, 20 times, he brought such a different side to Otto that we had never seen before. He brought a certain strength and masculinity but also an incredible sensitivity and accessibility and a sympathy to him, which we never really discovered before. This play is a two-hander. It’s a lot of pressure on the actors, so I’m just delighted, selfishly, to be playing opposite someone of his caliber. And in terms of the chemistry, we’re really able to bounce off each other on stage and pick up on each other’s energy, which is really all you can ask for when it’s just you and one other actor on stage. I’ve already discovered a lot about my character through playing off his understanding of Otto, so it’s kind of the best situation you can wish for going into a job like this.”
The two actors are directed by Geraldine Hughes, who, as an actress, played Broadway in Jerusalem and Translations. On film, she’s starred in Gran Torino, Rocky Balboa and Duplex. Hughes has, no doubt, helped Gormley and Simonian find deeper meaning in Holman’s words.
“It’s one of the great things about this play,” the actor said. “It’s so deep that you keep discovering new things all the time as you work. I don’t have any doubts when we’re hitting the last three shows in our run, we’re going to be picking up and discovering new things and ideas and impressions that we have of the characters.”
He added: “You can see films with actors of huge caliber and high production value, but if the script is not there, it’s just going to be no good. … That sounds very elementary and very obvious, but it really is hard to find well-written work. I like writing that takes risks. I like the challenge and [get] excited by a work. I like to see things that are bold in originality, works that often tell a very human story. Stories of struggle and pain and overcoming those things always sparked my interest as an actor because you get to deal with human emotion on the most basic but also the most complex levels.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Jonah and Otto, written by Robert Holman, plays Theatre Row’s Lion Theatre from Feb. 1-25. The production, directed by Geraldine Hughes and starring Rupert Simonian and Sean Gormley, is co-presented by Lost Tribe Theatre and Firefly Theatre & Films. Click here for more information and tickets.
