Theatre in Review: Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother? (Ensemble Studio Theatre)

	Jordan Donaldson, Brittany K. Allen, Rami Margron. Photo: Valerie Terranova

By the end of Michael Walek's new play, I'm not sure we have met Jane Goodall, for the very good reason that she often is sidelined in the vehicle bearing her name. Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother? is the surprisingly breezy account of an important scientific discovery, but its mind wanders, it is addicted to its presentational technique, it brazenly mixes fact with fiction, and it strolls down more dark jungle paths than Goodall ever did, chasing after subplots that allow commentary on colonialism, socialism, sexuality, and other not-strictly-relevant topics. It is charming and funny and often I wanted to shake it and say, "Get a hold of yourself!"

Walek begins with the undeniably fascinating fact that, in 1960, the relatively uneducated Goodall, having read extensively about the animal kingdom and worked for the paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey, got a grant to study chimpanzees in Tanganyika. In a true sign of the times, an unescorted, single female was deemed in need of a chaperone, so Goodall brought along her mother Vanne, a fiftysomething matron with a bohemian past and a permanently on-hold marriage to a racecar driver.

During her stay in Africa, Goodall made a finding about chimpanzee behavior that stunned her field, leading scientists to rethink the link between humans and primates. But perhaps because her work involved lengthy periods of sitting and watching chimpanzees in action -- when she could find them, which wasn't often -- Walek is forced to look elsewhere for drama. He subjects Jane and Vanne to a comparative study of generational attitudes. He surrounds the women with a trio of male characters, all homosexuals. He files reports about a crucial election that will usher in a socialist government. As he pursues these lines of thought, Jane has a way of fading into the background. She is practically a supporting character in the play that, again, bears her name.

Walek adopts a singular method to tell his story. No attempt is made at period style in the show's look and dialogue. No British or African accents are used, and the conversational style is strictly 2025 casual. (I doubt that any stuffy minor British functionary ever said, "Gotta run!") The script's presentational style is filled with redundancies: As an example, Vanne says, "Vanne exits." Then she exits. A character announces, "David reads the telegram." Then he...well, you know. At one point, Vanne says, "Okay we're gonna stop the play right here." Jane adds, "We could disguise this information in some heavy-handed dialogue that at best makes you go, wow, that exposition was hid pretty well." Often, watching Have You Met Jane Goodall... is like reading a book teeming with footnotes.

Still, under Linsay Firman's direction, the cast maintains a high-spirited atmosphere. Brittany K. Allen invests Jane with plenty of charisma, which is good because, as written, the character is self-involved and manipulative, keeping a wealthy, brainless actor boyfriend on the string in case her career plans fall through. She is also shockingly rude to Vanne who, after all, has been dragged to another continent and made to sleep in a tent. Indeed, Jane pales in interest to Kristin Griffith's Vanne, who, blithely unaware that she was her daughter's Z choice for this expedition, is oddly glamorous, thanks to her celebrity-filled past; she also has a knack for learning Swahili and an ability to charm the locals that leaves her fellow Brits shaking their heads in wonderment. Griffith brings a cheerful, understated authority to the role -- and, when she tells Jane off in no uncertain terms, we're entirely on her side.

The rest of the cast makes for equally genial company. Jordan Donaldson charms as Adolph, a young socialist hired to keep tabs on Jane, whom the local government fears is a spy. (Yes, Adolph's namesake is Hitler; as he tells Jane, "You guys forced a lot of people here to fight in the last war, didn't really give us a choice, so like we were all kinda rooting for your country to lose. Sorry. I hope that's not awkward or anything.") Adolph gets mighty cozy with Soko "Short" Wilbur (Rami Margron, radiating a kind of Hemingway man cool), an animal tracker hired by Jane to find chimps. Tommy Heleringer is acid yet oddly touching as David Lancaster, a British game warden with a penchant for the bottle and a fanboy's love for the musicals of the West End impresario Charles C. Cochran; a closet case dispatched to Africa by the Home Office after an embarrassing dustup in a Leicester Square toilet, his hobby is self-harm.

(A side note: David is entranced with Vanne because she once worked for Cochran. "Shall I tell you about the time I talked Noel [Coward] out of the men's room on the opening night of Sail Away?" she asks. I loved Sail Away!" David exclaims, launching into the song "Why do the Wrong People Travel." Alas, it wasn't produced until a year after the action of Have You Met Jane Goodall... and not by Charles Cochran, who had been dead for nine years. In a play like this, details matter.)

Many of these digressions are engaging. Things fall apart between Adolph and Short because the former is dedicated to helping push through a new socialist constitution complete with anti-gay laws. Short is baffled and hurt at his lover's seeming capitulation to the status quo, but Adolph reasons it will take time to root out British prejudices from the country's legal system. It's a chilling thought in light of the many former British colonies around the globe that continue to persecute members of the queer community. Then again, one wonders what all this has to do with Jane's fieldwork or her personal odyssey. With its running time of two-and-a-half hours and its willingness to entertain any argument, Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother? often seems stuffed with every stray idea that crossed Walek's mind.

Still, the play is often funny in a screwball comedy way. Bill, Jane's clueless British boyfriend, offers a vivid description of their future together in a cottage for two. "And who do I imagine in the kitchen? You," he says meaningfully. "Oh dear," she murmurs. "What am I doing in there?" Later, Short tells Jane, "Chimps are vegetarians. They mainly eat fruits and nuts. They like figs and oil palm nuts best." "How do you know this?" marvels Jane. "I have a library card," he replies flatly.

And, to be sure, everything comes together in the final scenes, especially when Reza Behjat's lighting transforms Tanya Orellana's set, revealing hidden depths and creating a sense of wonder abetted by the appearance of a stunning puppet designed by Lake Simons. These design elements, combined with a stirring speech for Vanne, go a long way toward elevating Jane's character. (Suzanne Chesney's costumes and Kathy Ruvuna's sound are both solid, although the use of anachronistic jazz selections seems like another non sequitur for a play that already has too many side hustles.)

Walek is clearly a talent to watch but Have You Met Jane Goodall and Her Mother? would benefit from a bit of its leading character's ruthlessness and single-mindedness. Interestingly, Jane Goodall is still with us at the ripe old age of ninety; I wonder what she would make of this lightly comic treatment of her great achievement. She might hope to be the star of her own show.--David Barbour