STAGE WEST: "The Monsters" at La Jolla Playhouse

Ngozi Anyanwu (left) and Sullivan Jones in "The Monsters."                                 Photo by Rich Soublet II

            The two hardest working actors in town right now have to be Ngozi Anyanwu and Sullivan Jones. As proof, there’s “The Monsters,” Anyanwu’s sister/brother drama set in the arena of mixed martial arts, or MMA.
            A co-production between La Jolla Playhouse and Berkeley Repertory Theatre, “The Monsters” requires Anyanwu and Jones to not only simulate the punching, kicking, bobbing and weaving of MMA but to tirelessly demonstrate the rigorous training that goes into prepping for a fight. Tortures (to me at least) such as jumping rope, doing fast-paced push-ups and sit-ups, and using the floor like a trampoline that doesn’t move. It’s exhausting and terribly impressive to watch from the passive comfort of a seat in the Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Forum.
            Yet technically and physically precise and powerful as all that is, the MMA is secondary to the interpersonal story of Joseph (called Big throughout) and younger sister Josie (Lil) who in a mere 80 minutes of stage time evolve from tentatively reunited to the most important person in each other’s lives.
            “The Monsters” is partly autobiographical for Anyanwu, who based the character of the aging fighter Big on her own older MMA-involved brother, wanting to honor his softer, human side just as she attempts to do – quite movingly – with Big. We suspect from the outset that Big is not a monster (the appellation he’s adopted, somewhat self-deprecatingly), but he must learn that truth himself.
            With a little help from Lil.
            Anyanwu knows “The Monsters” inside and out. She not only wrote the play but directed it in its premiere at Manhattan Theatre Club and has portrayed Lil a number of times onstage. At the Playhouse Tamilla Woodard is directing a production, with choreography by Adesola Osakalumi, that feels in perpetual motion even in its quieter, more introspective moments. Some of these come in flashbacks to Big and Lil’s past, children (though there’s a 10-year age difference) of the same father but different mothers. The affection they show for each other does not hint at the long estrangement to come between them, though the domestic abuse Big endures at the cruel hand of their father and suggestions of Big’s problem with booze loom.
            I generally applaud a play of only 80 minutes in length, but I think the flashbacks could have been more substantial if not more frequent during.
            The tale opens with Lil reintroducing herself to the older brother who hasn’t seen her in a dozen years or more. In the interim she’s been following his career as a fighter, admiring him as much as wondering about him. Big is surprised and wary, though rather too quickly for my buy-in he warms to her in his inherently terse, self-protective way.
            Recognizing the passion and potential in his sister as an athlete herself, Big soon is training her to follow in his footsteps. His admittedly second-tier career (in spite of the championship belts he possesses) is on the decline and the younger Lil appears to have what it takes to possibly surpass his own achievements in the cage.
            Lil is learning far more about her brother than his technical skills along the way, just as Big recognizes in her some of the same frailties (including potential substance abuse) that he has grappled with and sought in a sense to deny.
            The development of this mutual understanding and, more so, of a sibling relationship grounded in love are what make “The Monsters” as reverberant as it is. At the same time, the physicality of the story mirrors the emotion building in each character. Fight consultant Chelsea Pace and mixed martial arts consultant Eijara Eubanks are to be lauded for what certainly looks authentic to me, though I’m far from MMA-conversant. Just as integral to the theatrical reality of the production are the sound effects designed by Daniela Hart, Noel Nichols and Bailey Trierweiler of New York-based UptownWorks. You can swear the punches thrown are landing.
            Anyanwu and Jones are in sync in both the physical and emotional worlds of “The Monsters.” Big’s internal self-realizations are the more deep-seated, requiring Jones to all but become another character entirely before the tale is told but like so many men propelled by machismo and stoicism any substantive shift in persona can seem automatically dramatic.
            Anyanwu is energy personified. Lil becomes fight-ready and assumes some of her brother’s swagger, for better or worse, but she remains herself. She may one day be the champion Big never was, but won’t leave behind her innate playfulness and probably not the oversized Philadelphia Eagles jersey stashed away in her past.
            “The Monsters” did not make me an MMA fan or even curious about those who compete in mixed martial arts. It does, however, make me thoughtful about my own sibling relationships and how, for the good of all concerned, they demand attention and love.
            “The Monsters runs through June 28 in La Jolla Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Forum, UCSD campus.