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Prison Boxing

Reviewed by Jessica Salans

Skylight Theatre Company

Through April 26

 RECOMMENDED:

 Humor, wonder, disgust, grief; these are a few of Leah Joki’s “rasa boxes” from the debut of her one woman show, Prison Boxing. As shared in Joki’s author note, rasa is the Hindu word for feeling and emotion. In Hinduism, there are eight universal emotions, with a ninth box at the center for “self.” Joki’s endearing, generous presence allows the audience to share and cultivate empathy in her chosen emotion rasa boxes as she slips into various characters. There is a respite every time she returns to her center box, letting go, and letting us go from the intensity of her creations to the magnanimity of simpler, human self.

These returns to “self” are from people in prison: a heroine addict, a guard, a man writing love letters and candy requests to his outside-the-box sweetheart, the man sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Polly Klaas. Prison Boxing is a therapeutic repository of the people, conversations and of the joy-filled, repugnant and awe-inspiring span of Joki’s 18-year career as a theater teacher in California prisons.

This is an important show to see, not just because it is a finely executed one-woman performance but also because of the way Joki’s show addresses with such humanity the industrial prison complex in this country.

After seeing the play, you can dive deeper into Joki’s journey through her memoir Julliard to Jail.

Skylight Theatre Company; 1816 N. Vermont Ave, Los Feliz; Sat., 5 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m.; through April 26. https://skylighttheatrecompany.com/