Theatre Review: ‘Holly Down in Heaven’ at Forum Theatre

Dawn Thomas as Mia and Maya Jackson as Holly. Photo: Ryan Maxwell.

The Forum Theatre’s world premiere of Kara Lee Corthron’s new dark comedy Holly Down in Heaven is fabulous! Not only does it spur the imagination and rouse the intellect, but it also does what theatre is meant to do: it speaks directly to the world in which we live, and it does so in a refreshingly marvelous way. This show exemplifies why we should all encourage theatres to produce new works every chance they get.

The premise of Holly Down in Heaven is oddly simple. 15-year-old Holly has sex and becomes pregnant. Her parent has no control over the situation so Holly retreats to her basement to wait out the pregnancy.

Maya Jackson as Holly and Vanessa Strickland as Dr. McNuthin. Photo: Ryan Maxwell,

What makes the show so engaging is that Ms. Corthron has endowed the central character with every “issue” known to modern America. Holly is a gifted and talented student who knows it. She has absolutely no respect for her elders. She is an only child, with a single parent, an in-over-his-head father. She has a father who not only spoils her, but who also infantilizes her, treating her 15-year-old self as if she were still 9. She is struggling with issues of racial identification: she is a bi-racial child with a multi-racial doll collection. She is pregnant with a bi-racial developing fetus. She has recently discovered Jesus Christ, so now her fierce intellect collides headfirst with her determination to follow her faith. And did I mention her doll collection? She has over 200 of them in the basement, where she now lives, secluded from the world above. And did I mention her doll collection? She carries on conversations with them. Yes, conversations, not monologues; in other words, they talk back; until they don’t, which, according to the rules of the Cosmos, happens only after the maturation date. Then, to top it all off, she has a Superego that’s been shaped by the U.N. General Assembly (pity the poor child!) But no, she does not want to be pitied. So you might as well laugh, and laugh hard, despite the obvious pain she feels for her predicament, which might in the end make you feel empathy for her and the world we’ve made.

…a magnificent journey into the psychological landscape of a teenage girl, done with insight and humor

Maya Jackson does a superb job as Holly, not only capturing her overwhelming sense of confusion but also managing to keep us liking her in spite of the fact that she is so horribly ungrateful for the advantages she’s been afforded. Ms. Jackson embodies Holly’s complex world with humor, distress, cruelty, and empathy. She also navigates the 8-month dramatic through-line of the script, not only conveying this character’s anger at her predicament but also handling a convincing pregnancy walk across the stage weeks before the birth.

Page 1 of 3 | Next page