Theater Review: The Harvest

It would never occur to me, a survivor of fundamentalist Christianity, to want to go off and proselytize the not-yet-Christian world. I always figured people will find the religion they want by themselves, without my help.

So when I sat down at Onstage Playhouse for Samuel D. Hunter’s “The Harvest,” the latest show during the theater's 40th anniversary season, I was surprised to find that it involves eight people getting ready to do just that: go out and make more Christians.

The playwright, winner of a genius grant in 2014, has written about things such as morbid obesity (“The Whale”) and nursing home residents (“Rest”), so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he picked this topic for a play.

The gang in “The Harvest” is first seen in the grungy basement of a small church, speaking in tongues. Five of this group will depart in three days for “over there,” somewhere in the Middle East, where they will try to make more Christians. Four of them plan to stay for four months, but young Josh (Marcel Ferrin) has committed to an indefinite stay, perhaps because his father has recently died (his mother had left the family long before).

Early on, Josh’s elder sister Michaela (Emily Candia), a former meth addict, shows up in an attempt to sway brother Josh from his stated goal. Josh’s father has recently died of alcoholism, and she would like to live with her brother. But Josh has other ideas.

One of the other four is another young man named Tom (Jaden Guerrero), who takes a fancy to Josh. Will this go anywhere?

There’s also a mission trainee named Denise (Shelby Wuitschick), whose husband won’t even let her speak in tongues, and the group’s unofficial trainer Ada (Adriana Cuba).

The last character is a preacher named Chuck (played by director James P. Darvas), who shows up at the end.

“The Harvest” is a strange play that left many audience members wondering a bit. But as Onstage’s board president puts it, “Onstage Playhouse pledges to continue to do our very best to live up to our motto of bringing you theatre worth talking about in a way that challenges all of us to live brighter in this world.”