MAMET’S HENRY JOHNSON
PROVES A DIFFICULT PROTAGONIST
Along with blazingly rapid dialog, there’s something aggressively determined about David Mamet plays—like Glengarry Glen Ross now being revived on Broadway—and his latest Henry Johnson is no exception. Written in 2023 where it premiered at the Electric Lodge in Venice, California, Mamet’s stage effort is now enjoying its Midwest premiere at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater in association with Relentless Theatre Group.
With a flush of intensity that builds quickly right after the lights come up on the stage, it’s a fast two-act ride.
Al’Jaleel McGhee (Mr. Barnes) and Daniil Krimer (Henry Johnson)
An office worker, Henry Johnson (Daniil Krimer), is being grilled by his boss about why he’s so invested in helping a friend. Someone who’s committed a reprehensible act and a person who, as their exchange develops, doesn’t even appear to be close enough to Henry to be considered a friend. The man is someone Henry knew in college. Now middle aged, Henry had not heard from this individual since they graduated until a few years ago when the man contacted him looking for help. Having pled guilty to manslaughter for deliberately causing the miscarriage of his girlfriend’s fetus and now in prison, the man was reaching out for emotional support and practical assistance. Part of that help included asking Henry to set him up with a job in the company he works for. Mr. Barnes (Al’ Jaleel McGhee), Henry’s boss, isn’t responding well to the request.
Al’Jaleel McGhee (Mr. Barnes) and Daniil Krimer (Henry Johnson)
More than skeptical, Mr. Barnes doesn’t seem to be accepting anything Henry says that justifies his compassion for this person who, according to Henry, simply “made a mistake” and “paid his debt to society” by being locked up for a handful of years. With the deliberate precision you’d associate more with a seasoned prosecutor than a corporate manager, McGhee as Barnes tears to shreds every defense Henry has for his ersatz friend.
Daniil Krimer (Henry Johnson) and Al’Jaleel McGhee (Mr. Barnes)
Through it all, Henry’s placidly benign demeanor doesn’t change. He’s steadfast in his loyalty. After listening to Henry’s descriptions of this man, how charismatic and appealing he is to women, the ease and confidence he has when moving through the world, Barnes makes prescient and insightful deductions about him and about Henry. Even though nothing he says disrupts Henry’s fealty, Barnes doesn’t let his employee forget the heinousness of what his friend did to a life he helped to create. It’s all a build-up to a revelation that contradicts Henry’s harmless exterior. One that centers on a huge sum of money that’s been embezzled from the company and used to hire Henry’s friend the best lawyer money can buy. That discovery lands Henry behind bars.
With McGhee’s keenly focused performance as Barnes, and under Edward Torres’s solid direction, the play’s opening sizzles with portent. The incensed inner soul of Mr. Barnes drives the opening sequence, making us hopeful and anxious to soon capture a glimpse of the inner workings of Henry’s mind. What led him to steal from his company and what compels him to be so obsequiously committed to a person who seems merely to be using him? Although it may have been genuine, compassion alone doesn’t justify his actions. Up to this point, Henry’s dialogue exposes very little that sheds light on either question. When the scene changes to Henry in prison, the hopes of finding answers to those questions slowly dissipate.
Thomas Gibson (Gene) and Daniil Krimer (Henry Johnson)
A clear power dynamic was in play when Henry was being interrogated by his boss earlier in the performance. The same type of imbalance is found in Henry’s prison cell. His cellmate, Gene (Thomas Gibson), has the advantage of time. He’s older and accrued much more world knowledge than Henry. We never learn what crime Gene committed to be imprisoned, but it’s evident he’s been there a long time. Long enough to hone the skill of quickly measuring the temper of a man and use it either for sport or to gain some sort of advantage. A quintessential prison philosopher, he posits his theories and beliefs about people with lightning-fast speed and complete assurance. He eventually convinces his malleable cellmate that Henry’s well-meaning prison counselor genuinely believes in him and might be willing to prove her conviction through action. Gene goads and steers Henry into pursuing the possibility that she’ll provide tangible help to him.
It’s difficult to say what it is about Henry, and by extension the play, that has a plausibility problem. His intentions are often just and well meaning, but his actions always seem to shatter the integrity of his aims. In his interchanges with Gene, he seems to be asking questions much more than he makes declarative statements. Dispensing reams of truth based on his own thought patterns is Gene’s exclusive domain. The process turns Henry into someone who can be controlled. Someone susceptible to manipulation.
Daniil Krimer (Henry Johnson) and Thomas Gibson (Gene)
There’s also a naivete about Henry’s character and a willful guilelessness. Krimer’s portrayal of the central character is strong and convincing, but the way Henry’s drawn and the way others interact with him exposes a cynicism about human nature. He’s often asking for genuine truth. But time after time he’s only being told what’s going to benefit someone other than himself. Deep in the second act, when Henry finds himself with a gun in his hand and squared off with Jerry (Keith Kupferer), the prison guard over at the library, the dynamic of pathos that’s slowly been building finally congeals and hardens. The final question becomes will it be broken or play through and end in sorrow.
Meaty performances and CODESIGN STUDIOS‘ sleekly austere set design—which allows audience seating on the stage—are reasons to experience Henry Johnson, not to mention the chance to once again be in the long-shuttered Victory Gardens theater in the year that marks its 50th anniversary. But how much you enjoy the play may be determined by how satisfactory you prefer your suspense.
photos by Michael Brosilow
Henry Johnson
Victory Gardens Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave.
Wed-Fri at 7; Sat at 3 & 7:30; Sun at 3 (dark April 18-20)
ends on May 4, 2025
for tickets ($64-69), visit Victory Gardens
for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago
