“This Much I Know” by Jonathan Spector is the most unusual play I’ve seen in quite a while. This surrealistic piece of theater jumps about in time and place with some of the dozens of scenes lasting only minutes. Ironically, despite the title, there is little I really know or am sure about in this mind-bending work of art. Yet despite being confused, I was totally engrossed in the story as it evolved.
It begins with a man coming out and telling us to turn off our cell phones. We soon learn that he is not a stage manager at InterAct Theatre but a principal character in the play. Lukesh (Sorab Wadia) is a Psychology Professor, and he sets the stage as he tells us, the audience, about memories, ideas, and perceptions, not only of the present, but also of the past and the future. Throughout the play, he adds to his talk- this alone is worth the price of admission. I was fascinated by his insights into life and the way we view it. He is also the mentor for Harold (Mark Worth), who is working on his dissertation about his white nationalist father.
The more interesting story is of Natalya (Jessica DalCanton), who is writing about her Russian grandmother. It is a very personal story that she is working on and not only won’t show it to her husband but has trouble defining it for herself… and for us, the audience.
Her great grandparents (her grandmother’s parents) were sentenced to death by Joseph Stalin in Russia in the late 1930’s. But she believes that her grandmother had a relationship with Svetlana Alliluyeva Stalin, Stalin’s daughter, and appealed to her to save the couple. She wants to corroborate that. As the play moves back and forth in time, DalCanto, in addition to portraying Natalya, also portrays Svetlana most realistically.
We learn about Svetlana’s marriages, about her defection to the U.S., and her relationship with her father. In fact, this play is also about relationships- Harold is wrestling with his relationship with his father and his own connection to white nationalism. It leads to some philosophizing about politics and human nature by the professor. And of course, the relationship between Lukesh and his wife is ever-present, even when she is gone. There are flashbacks from when they met on a train years before. And before she left, she was traumatized when she accidentally killed a cyclist and feels guilty even though eyewitnesses absolved her.
As she tries to track down the story of her ancestors, can we trust what she learns? Will her story be truthful or will she need to fill in the gaps?
Wadia plays other roles in this tale, and Worth assumes the characters of a dozen others besides the troubled Harold. They are superb as is DalCanto in bringing to life the history, the story, and the realization that nothing in life is, was, or will ever be certain. The only thing I know in “This Much I Know” is that I thoroughly enjoyed this mind-expanding play.
“This Much I Know” by Jonathan Spector at InterAct Theatre Company at The Drake, 302 S. Hicks St., Philadelphia, PA 19102, 215-568-8079 interacttheatre.org Thru November 22, 2026
