Review: OnStage Playhouse’s ‘Harvest’ a dark look at blind faith and evangelism

Marcel Ferrin plays Josh in OnStage Playhouse's "The Harvest."

The 2017 play by Samuel D. Hunter opens the Chula Vista theater’s 40th anniversary season

March 27, 2024 6:42 PM PT

In Samuel D. Hunter’s play “The Harvest,” a group of young Idaho evangelicals are in the final 72-hour countdown for their months-long missionary trip to the Middle East.

So when the play begins in the shabby basement of a church, the prayers the missionaries are reciting in a rising cacophony of noise sound, at first, like they’re in Arabic. In reality, the characters are speaking in tongues, a mishmash of syllables that one character says may be nonsensical but it brings him comfort.

But the 90-minute play, which opened last weekend at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista, isn’t designed to be comfortable. What becomes clear is that these troubled missionaries are on a fool’s errand. Their leaders are cynical, manipulative and dishonest, the relationships between the missionaries are on the verge of collapse and their vague mission is less about saving souls than it is an opportunity for them to all escape their problems at home.

OnStage Playhouse’s artistic director James P. Darvas directs the production and co-stars as the mission’s creepy lead pastor, Chuck. It’s a nice production, with a good cast and excellent scenic design by Duane McGregor. But the play itself is not one of Hunter’s best.

Hunter is better known for the excellent 2010 play “A Bright New Boise,” which also dealt with an Idaho man’s crisis of faith, and “The Whale,” a moving 2012 play he later adapted into a 2022 film screenplay. By contrast, “The Harvest” feels underdeveloped. As a director, Darvas brings nuance to the story and relationships, but some of the characters feel one-dimensional and the script lacks subtlety in places.

Marcel Ferrin, a fast-rising, instinctive San Diego actor who has performed with Backyard Renaissance, Moxie and Loud Fridge theater companies over the past 2 years, leads the cast.

He plays Josh, a fragile young man whose faith has become so shaken, he’s contemplating a one-way trip to the Middle East, where he might be lucky enough to die a martyr. The script hints that Josh sees this sacrifice as the only way he can make it into heaven, considering his sexual attraction to his best friend and fellow missionary, the anxiety-riddled Tom (played by Jaden Guerrero), who returns the feelings.

Josh’s sister Michaela (played with a fierce intensity by Emily Candia) arrives from out of town with the goal of persuading Josh to stay home and move in with her. Through Michaela, a recovering addict who has lived a hard life, the audience learns that their childhood was scarred by parental loss, abuse and the oppressive power of the church in their lives.

Adriana Cuba is especially strong as Ada, the slick, insincere and high-pressure missionary leader whose only interest is making her numbers for the year. And Geoffrey Geissinger and Shelby Wuitschick complete the cast as the self-absorbed Marcus and despairing Denise, married missionaries who are expecting their first child.

On its surface, “The Harvest” appears a damning criticism of evangelical missionary work. But the play is not so much about religion as it is about how these characters use faith to ease their pain and control the lives of others. The play circles back to “speaking in tongues” in the end, but this time the voices are articulately united in sound. Whether Josh finds safety in these prayers at the end is left to the audience’s imagination, but there’s a sliver of hope.