Theater review: Hartford Stage finds darkness and light in new psychological drama ‘Simona’s Search’

Hartford Stage is fighting the darkness, finding the light and keeping it balanced with the self-reflective family drama/coming-of-age story “Simona’s Search.”

The thought-provoking play by Martín Zimmerman is having its world premiere at Hartford Stage through Feb. 11.

“Simona’s Search” is about dark thoughts, depression and the anguish of deceiving loved ones (or being deceived by them). It’s about neuroscience, grad school stress, insomnia and abruptly canceled travel reservations. It’s about the disconnect between a parent and a child and about connections that never really existed.

So it’s wonderful that “Simona’s Search” is also filled with fun, frivolity and fantasy. Comic moments keep the mood from getting too miserable. The central relationship between a daughter and her father isn’t a lost cause. We are continually shown how well they get along in general and how much they care for each other. There is just this one massive event in the father’s past that they can’t share. Except the daughter, the Simona of the title, feels she’s sharing anyway despite not knowing what it was.

Mainly, “Simona’s Search” is about intergenerational trauma, the concept that one person’s traumatic experience can manifest itself as trauma in that person’s relatives. The transference is often presumed to be through emotional behavioral patterns, but there is a spiritual and supernatural sense to this play as well. There are dreamy, hallucinogenic and sleep-deprived scenes. There are spooky video projections that give the trauma a blurry human shape.

Hartford Stage readies for premiere of deeply emotional father/daughter drama ‘Simona’s Search’

For some, the idea of a detailed illustration of a diffuse internal feeling may make for a questionable psychoanalytic argument, but it sure makes for good theater. Zimmerman has brought psychological and trauma themes to his previous plays such as “Seven Spots on the Sun” and “The Solid Sand Below,” not to mention as a writer for the TV series “Ozark” and “Surface.” He has packed “Simona’s Search” with action and imagery but it is all in service of a solid intellectual endeavor.

The plot is uncomplicated: A college-age young woman, Simona, delves into a dark secret that her father, whom she calls Papi, has been deliberately keeping from her for her whole life. The quest affects what she chooses to study in school, how she spends her spare time, where she wants to travel and how she conducts herself in a budding romantic relationship with a fellow grad student named Jake.

Besides playing Papi, Al Rodrigo (last seen at Hartford Stage in 1987 in Mark Lamos’ production of “Pericles”) also embodies some academic or medical authority figures. He has a gift for switching from paternal empathy to a doctor’s smug insensitivity while hardly changing his outward demeanor.

Christopher Bannow, a New Haven native who took a lot of risks as a student actor in an array of compelling shows at the Yale School of Drama around a dozen years ago and has since distinguished himself in New York City in creative revivals of “The Elephant Man,” “Oklahoma” and “The Hairy Ape,” plays Jake the boyfriend. He also depicts a whiskered interloper who demonstrates the many mental mazes and traps Simona is going through in her search for truth.

Bannow brings a special tension to the play, and Rodrigo brings a special warmth and giddiness, but both actors know not to upstage Alejandra Escalante as Simona. This is Simona’s search, her story, told in a variety of narrative styles. Escalante is able to maneuver Simona’s shifts in attitude and anxiety without losing focus.

Director (and Hartford Stage artistic director) Melia Bensussen, who has been championing this script for years, uses a lot of special effects and sharp transitions but keeps the drama direct and clear. This is no small trick considering that Zimmerman’s play defies traditional linear storytelling and doesn’t accept practical solutions for the problems it probes.

The Hartford Stage run had a rocky beginning. Only one preview performance happened before an illness sidelined one of the actors. Five previews were canceled. An understudy was enlisted and went on twice, script in hand. The full regular cast was able to regroup by last Friday night. This critic saw the Saturday night performance, and it seemed to go very smoothly considering the lost prep time.

In this premiere staging and new script that was still being lightly tinkered with during rehearsals, a few elements don’t ring true enough. Papi keeping his secrets from Simona seems believable, but Simona keeping her own profound, and easily detectable, issues from Jake doesn’t. If it’s supposed to be an ironic mirroring of the father’s behavior, it’s not.

But in most respects, the complete lack of tidy conclusions, blanket explanations, simplistic pop psychology or a neat ending is the best thing about “Simona’s Search.” It’s a search, not a discovery. There are obstacles; personal, private and mental. The play refuses to shut down because it has run its 90-minute course. It keeps you thinking.

Hartford Stage’s continued commitment to new works is commendable, particularly in the fraught post-pandemic theater world where “tame and familiar” is often mistakenly translated as “safe and profitable. This is a high-quality, richly designed multi-media and multi-dimensional production. It’s on par with the two new plays Bensussen brought to Hartford Stage last season, “The Art of Burning” and “Espejos: Clean,” which also had themes of distrust and danger in family settings. “Simona’s Search” is also the latest in a string of Hartford Stage shows that highlight Latinx characters and incorporate Spanish dialogue.

Bensussen instincts are terrific, picking plays about misunderstood, distraught yet very likable folks trying to live in cultures or relationships that may be excluding them. “Simona’s Search” is a worthy journey of self-discovery we can all pick up on.

“Simona’s Search” runs through Feb. 11 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. On Feb. 7 there’s a 2 p.m. performance instead of an evening one. $20-$100. hartfordstage.org/simonas-search.