Stage Review - The Realistic Joneses (Jewel Box)

Stage Review - The Realistic Joneses
Presented By: Jewel Box Theatre - Poulsbo, WA
Show Run: June 20 - June 29, 2025
Date Reviewed: Saturday, June 21, 2025 (Opening Weekend)
Run Time: 2 Hours, 15 Minutes (including a 15-minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman

How do we react when the news is given to us that we’ve got an incurable illness, and what do those reactions do to our interpersonal relationships, assuming that we’re upfront and honest about what we’re going through to begin with. In The Realistic Joneses, playwright Will Eno explores both situations through a story of two families going through the same thing, but in completely different ways, families that just so happen to live a few houses away from each other and become inexorably intertwined as a result of timing, location, and circumstance. The show is currently on stage at the Jewel Box Theatre in Poulsbo, running through June 29, and features a cast of four, playing two couples, both named Jones consequently, who are both facing down their own issues, handling them in much different ways while trying to navigate their friendship together. It’s a story that deals in the themes of mortality, hidden and not so hidden individual struggles, communication, and miscommunication, but it’s told with human characters that make us all think how we might react if faced with the same challenges that the people do in the play. This production, directed by Jeffrey Brown, captures all of the emotional complexity that comprises each individual situation, and does so in a production that makes this story and these characters extremely accessible.

The Jones family, Jennifer and Bob, start the play on their back porch, struggling their way through a conversation, clearly with a wall of some sort between them, Jennifer trying to initiate, and Bob responding in his trademark deadpan with short answers to prevent a larger discussion. At first, Bob seems beaten down, or defeated. Suddenly, after a clamoring in the shadows, another couple arrives, who tell the Joneses, after apologizing for the noise, that they just moved in and that they, too, are named Jones. This new, younger, couple is quite the contrast to the older Joneses, energetic and overtly friendly, husband John an anxious and nervous talker, speaking in what seems like nonsense and an excessive amount of non sequitors, he’s not proficient at reading social queues and has no filter when he speaks, and wife Pony, who comes across as naive and nervous, a bit awkward. Despite these characteristics, that at first seem off-putting, this new couple seems overtly friendly and looking to make a connection, as does Jennifer. It’s Bob who clearly wants to be left alone. The reason, though, is quickly pointed out, he’s suffering from an illness, the fictional Harriman Leavey Syndrome, for which there is no cure. It turns out that John, too has a similar diagnosis, but his handling of it is completely different. And as the couples intermingle, and the audience sees how each couple is trying to work through the challenges of the illness, or not work through it, each character is drawn to another in order to help fill the emotional holes in their own lives, and in doing so makes each better able to handle what they are experiencing. It turns out, at the end of the day, this chance meeting of couples with the same last name is exactly what they each need.

Jennifer and Bob are played by Sandi Spellman and Wayne Purves. In keeping with the title of the play, The Realistic Joneses, Sandi and Wayne each play characters that are wholly relatable. Whether a result of dealing with aging parents or personal experience, Jennifer’s attempts to remain positive and Bob’s subsequent thwarting of them are things we’ve probably seen quite a bit, especially if you’re of a certain age. It’s John and Pony that might be a little less relatable, though only at face value. Casey Cline and Terace Yeatts play the younger husband and wife, and while Terace’s Pony, who is kept in the dark for the most part by John, acts in a way, at least regarding how she reacts to that part of it, that will look familiar, it’s Casey’s John and his strange way of speaking, nervous and irrational at times, that may be a little more difficult to fathom. It’s something that, as an audience member, is important to let just wash over you rather than spend their time trying to understand every single word, or line of dialogue. The work Casey does in this role, though, is quite good. There are moments when it’s clear his nervousness is a wall that he’s built up, and when he lets his true emotions out in these more serious moments, that’s when he is at his absolute best, those “a-ha, I get it now” moments. It’s a performance that has a lot to emotion behind it, including a standout scene when John has just had too much and becomes overwhelmed, it’s a scene in which the character strips himself bare to his emotional core, and Casey nails it. Each of these actors is extremely good in their roles, Sandi’s Jennifer a solid and supportive spouse to Bob, despite his negative attitude, she’s fighting the good fight, and Wayne is good as the grumpy Bob, again, like Casey, is even better when his character lets his walls down to expose a more vulnerable side. Finally, Terace’s Pony is naive on the surface, but she’s played with a strength underneath that you feel, if given the chance to express it, would help John through anything, she’s certainly willing to. And Terace’s scene at the beginning of the second act, “Pony’s Prayer” is sweet, desperate, pleading, and loving, it’s very beautifully delivered.

What strikes me about each of these characters, though, is their loneliness. Each is fighting being lonely, but not alone, individually, and that’s what ultimately brings them all together, and that’s the aspect of this play that I like the most, how each finds what they need in the others without sacrificing their own relationships. In all actuality, their marriages are made stronger by their new interactions. Ultimately, it’s not a complex story, though the emotions comprising it are. The design as well is not all that complicated, but for a show like this, I believe that it’s got the right amount of detail and is executed just right. The set, built by Bill Klorig, consists of panels that are slid on and off stage to represent the backside of their homes, complemented by furniture pieces, outdoor porch furniture or a bar. Removing the panel changes the location, from home to grocery store as one example. The best part on the creative side, though, comes as the result of a combination of light and sound, a scene in which the older Joneses take in a fireworks display. It’s challenging in a small space to create something like this, but Lance Rossing has deigned a light pattern that does a good job with it.

The Realistic Joneses is so named by playwright Will Eno because of his intent to make a story that is relatable with characters who behave realistically. He’s certainly done that with this piece, and in the latest production of it at the Jewel Box Theatre in Poulsbo, director Jeffrey Brown presents a show that is indeed accessible, a solid story of mortality, communication, loneliness, and love, told by a talented cast of actors who are able to strip back the walls of their characters in order to expose their vulnerable sides. It’s a show that will make us think about our own lives, how their challenges define our behaviors and relationships, the walls that exist to prevent people from getting too close, and how, by knocking them down, we may find the grace we need to fill the holes in our hearts.

The Realistic Joneses runs on stage at the Jewel Box Theatre in Poulsbo through June 29. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.jewelboxpoulsbo.org/.

Photo credit: Kathy Berg