Review: SUNNY IN THE DARK at Salt Lake Acting Company Dazzles

SUNNY IN THE DARK, a world premiere by local playwright Elaine Jarvik, dazzles in its exploration of existential questions and sense-making as 15-year-old Sunny ponders her origin story and how the universe, God, and a complicated truth play into her understanding of the world.

CoCo May Berwald, in her Salt Lake Acting Company debut, plays Sunny with an appropriate blend of teenage angst and intellectual prowess needed to understand (or rather reflect on) both a crush at school and the oft-confusing theories of astrophysics that try to explain our beginning and ending when the now is so convoluted.  

Matthew Ivan Bennett plays The Astrophysicist and literally lights up the stage with his zany science-based monologues that produced more questions for an overwhelmed Sunny who was already up against the conflicting lenses of morality, faith, trust, and belief. The cosmic proportions of Bennett’s comedic timing were not difficult to comprehend at all.

Directed by Marion Markham, the play also stars Alexandra Harbold and Paul Mulder as Elise and Tom, Sunny’s loving yet secret-hiding parents, Micki Martinez as AJ, Elise’s no-nonsense campaign manager, and Jason Andrew Hackney in three roles, Dad/Priest/Man, all eccentric and amusing in their ability to show up at the right (or wrong) time to help Sunny find answers.

Ultimately, Jarvik’s play successfully incorporates a universal theme of what it means to believe, especially as it relates to politics, religion, science, and family dynamics. It also carefully considers the very human trait that is yearning for a North Star when feeling adrift.

SUNNY IN THE DARK runs through March 1, 2026 at Salt Lake Acting Company. For tickets, call the box office at (801) 363-7522 or visit https://saltlakeactingcompany.org/.

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