Barebones productions launches 20th season with fiery 'Is God Is'

The brooding man acts on his cruel intentions. Married with 3-year-old twin daughters, he wants out. He wants a new life and sets a fire and leaves his family for dead. The fire does not kill his family, but horrifically scars them.

Eighteen years later, the now 21-year-old twins Anaia and Racine hear from their mother for the first time since the fire happened. They thought she was dead, but she has written a letter asking them to grant her dying wish that they find and kill their father as revenge for leaving them in misery.

They agree and a cross-country “man” hunt (the father is called The Man) ensues in the play “Is God Is,” the first show of barebones productions’ 20th season. The hunt takes the twins from the “Dirty South” to the California desert where the father is living his chosen life with a new wife and 16-year-old twin sons.

They are left with only one clue to finding their father.

“Imagine combining ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,’ let’s just say Spaghetti Westerns, with ancient stories, biblical stories like ‘Cain and Abel,’” said barebones artistic director Patrick Jordan. “This playwright has done a wonderful job of combining all these genres — from Afropunk all the way down. The play moves like lightning.”

The playwright, Aleshea Harris, would agree. She was quoted by New York Theater critic Jonathan Mandell as saying “Is God Is” is an “epic,” taking “its cues from the ancient, the modern, the tragic, the Spaghetti Western, hip-hop and Afropunk.”

However one wishes to describe it, Jordan knew when he read it that it was a play his small, cutting edge Braddock theater would have to perform.

“I fell in love with it when I first read it in 2018. I had never read anything like it,” Jordan said. “I know there is a lot of fire and matches in the play, but it was like a lit match. I was like ‘who is this playwright and how do I not know who she is?’”

Jordan said he wanted to stage “Is God Is” before the pandemic, but covid brought live theater to a halt. However, over the next couple of years he never stopped thinking about it.

“I feel that this play is one of those reasons why we have a theater company — to show these stories to people in the Pittsburgh area,” he said. “It’s wickedly entertaining and it has a lot of dark humor in it as well.”

Unlike Jordan, actor Javon Johnson — who is directing and playing the father in “Is God Is” as part of an all Black cast of eight actors — didn’t know about the play until Jordan called to ask him about directing it.

“Patrick sent me the play and I read it and I thought it was an extremely exciting piece, not one that you typically see in live theater,” Johnson said. “I thought it had a lot of things that were appealing in terms of artistically getting involved with it. This play is more of an exploration of women exemplifying their rage when they’ve been abused and taking ownership and getting their own kind of justice.

“You just don’t see this kind of play in the contemporary world with the mixes of all these genres. It could be a challenging piece as well and I always look for a challenge.”

For Johnson, the challenge included directing an extremely intense production while simultaneously playing a cold blooded character who tried to kill his wife and children.

“The rule of thumb as actors is we don’t judge the characters, we fall in love with them,” he said. “We understand them whether we agree with their decisions, their behaviors (or not). There is a human being there. We don’t look at characters as the bad guy. We look at them as a human being and what drives them to do what they do.”

It’s quite the departure from Johnson’s role as Richard Hallsen on the Tyler Perry produced political drama television series “The Oval” on BET network.

Johnson said he is happy to be back in Pittsburgh, where he obtained a master of fine arts degree from Pitt. He’s also happy to be on a live stage in an intimate venue like barebones productions.

“I come from theater first. That’s where all my training is, so my bloodline is theater. I’m always coming back to that,” Johnson said. “I’m (also) very familiar with the city of Pittsburgh and I’m always looking for a reason to come back to this area because I spent three years working in the community and studying at the university and making a lot of relationships that are still here. So, it’s a delight to come back to Pittsburgh and work.”

While growing up in Anderson, S.C., Johnson became friends with fellow actor Chadwick Boseman, who is also an Anderson native.

“Chadwick and I were very close,” Johnson said. “I worked on his projects, I was in his shows, his plays. He was really a director. That was his passion, to direct and write more than acting.”

Johnson said he and Boseman worked together on a short film called “Heaven” which was the last thing Boseman made before dying of cancer in 2020.

Jordan said the play includes an original score by local rock legend Byron Nash.

“Byron is one of Pittsburgh’s most prolific rock stars, and he brings an incredible energy and style to everything he does,” he said. “The actors we’ve cast are mind-blowing. This one is going to be really special.”