Theatre Exile debuts world premiere of James Ijames' 'Abandon'

Luella catches Joshua in the act but instead of calling the police, decides to take pity and allows him to spend the night to escape the winter chill outside. With a baseball bat in one hand and a bowl of mac and cheese in the other, Luella soon realizes this young man shares a lot in common with her late son, Gabriel. And as the night unfolds, these to lonely souls forge an unlikely bond as their respective pasts are brought to light.

The characters in “Abandon” embark on a spiritual and emotional journey, allowing them to reckon with their pasts and break free of their isolation. Ijames’ latest play is sometimes violent, sometimes healing, and conjures up a thin veil that separates the worlds of the living and the dead, shame and acceptance.

Ijames says he’s excited to premiere “Abandon” with Theatre Exile. “The play was inspired by my own recent journey with grief and loneliness. I wanted to explore how they impact a person and how someone can find their way out of that.”

Writer-actor Brenson Thomas takes the role of Gabriel in this semi-supernatural saga. He explains, “I am a ghost and Luella’s late son. She is a woman dealing with grief most of the time. So Gabriel comes — and goes — but he often comes around to bring her solace.

“It’s a real treat working in this play. Actually I think the entire show is magical.”

According to Thomas, before the show began, the cast and director, Brett Ashley Robinson, talked a lot about the show’s magic and how to play and interact with a ghost.

“The natural instinct when playing a scene near Gabriel was to look at him. But we knew that wouldn’t work because supposedly he was visible only to Luella,” Thomas explains. “All that had to be worked out and it was.”

Thomas, who grew up just north of Atlanta, Georgia, also worked out a life’s plan for himself. He says he always loved the arts and performed whenever he could, but never thought of it as a viable career.

“But I think access to the arts is terribly important for any youngster. I know it certainly was for me.”

And so going to the theater, and watching people on the stage that he could relate to, eventually made a young Thomas think maybe he could do that too someday. To achieve that goal he enrolled as a theater major at Georgia College and State University, a small liberal arts college.

“I started to do some good — and some not so good — performances, but I realized I still had a lot to learn,” he acknowledges.

Coming to Philly to apprentice at the Walnut Street Theater helped in that pursuit as well as develop a deep love for the city itself.

“I also went to work at the University of the Arts as an assistant to the director of the School of Dance,” he adds. “I wish I could say I was a great dancer, but I wasn’t. I was doing administrative work, but at the same time I fell in love with Philadelphia and knew this is where I wanted to be.”

But after approximately six years here in the city of Brotherly Love, and watching others actively pursue their real goals, Thomas decided to do the same. So he enrolled in Sarah Lawrence’s MFA Theatre Program to finally fulfill a dream of not just acting but writing as well. And over the years he’s not only appeared in many plays, but written many himself, including local productions and shows for TV and film.

As far as having a preference for all that he does, he says simply, “It depends on the week!”

For more on Thomas and the “Abandon” production, visit theatreexile.org.