The
infamous Yom Kippur War in 1973 was one of Israel’s most critical
times, when the nation’s very existence was at stake. During
that terrible time American playwright Meri Wallace lived in Israel
(from 1968 to 1975), and out of her experience comes a very personal
play – Yom Kippur. With that war as its background, Yom Kippur
deals with the lives, deaths, anguishes and joys of four young people.
So far, so good. Wallace has chosen an era that
offers rich material for exploration. How were families affected
by that sudden, disastrous war? How does one balance loyalties?
How did its impact change relationships, bring forth long-hidden
secrets, develop bravery or cowardice? All questions to which Jews
– and indeed any student of human nature – would like
to know the answer.
Unfortunately, the best of intentions do not necessarily
result in top-notch theater. Wallace too often skims the surface,
never pursuing issues nor developing characters in depth. Too often
a topic is mentioned and dropped, leaving the viewer at sea. And
her two-dimensional characters, paired with a complicated plot,
make for a kind of soap opera. Furthermore, the dialogue tends to
be flat, limited, uninspired.
Her story deals with two American couples, all
four of whom have made aliyah (resettlement in Israel). Yitz and
Yael are married, in love, and expecting a child. Friends Ephraim
and Sarah are married, but Ephraim prefers Yael. Yitz bravely enlists,
rushes off to the battlefront, while Ephraim stays back, battling
it out with wife Sarah and longed-for Yael. Numerous other personal
issues and characters complicate the tale – Yitz’s mother
who had abandoned her son, a new lover for Yael, a marriage for
two other friends, birth of Yael’s child.
Problems of the play, whatever its flaws, are not
improved by the production. Granted that Yom Kippur is part of the
play festival, where new works are necessarily mounted with a minimum
of cost. It is a time of beginnings, of experimentation. Nevertheless,
director Halina Ujda might have managed a smoother staging. With
its many short scenes, Ujda has difficulty effecting smooth transitions,
which turn out to be awkward, lengthy and noisy.
Yet the cast of nine acquits itself favorably.
Particularly affecting in their roles are Aylam Orian (as Avi) and
Gayle Robbins (as Sarah). But, all told, this is a play that has
yet to find its best voice. Wallace would do well to take Yom Kippur
back to the drawing board, enriching its characters and enhancing
its language.
Manhattan’s Midtown Festival mixes
it up
Jewish themes and characters are well represented
in New York’s current fringe festival – called the Midtown
International Theatre Festival. A recent satirical piece, titled
The Higher Education of Khalid Amir, deals with Jewish-Muslim-Christian
interrelations on a Midwestern college campus. In the process, all
institutions and characters are held up to ridicule, but the major
targets are the American government and the media.
In fact, playwright Monica Bauer’s hilarious
absurdist play, Higher Education, takes us on a dizzying journey
through her imaginary (or not so imaginary) world. She throws every
type of person into the mix – a whirl of straights, gays,
cross-dressers, Jews, Muslims, Christians. They are all skewered.
But the Jews are more sympathetically portrayed
than others. Norm, a Jewish professor, is the one who champions
human rights, does not hesitate to speak out, even if his job is
on the line. And Juanita Juarez, the professor of Latino history,
turns out to be a nice Jewish girl from Manhattan’s Upper
West Side, nee Juanita Berkowitz. Why has she changed her name,
hidden her true identity? It is the only way, it seems, for her
to be hired to lecture on Latino culture and politics. But she,
too, is a feisty supporter of liberal causes.
What is the plot on which Bauer hangs all this?
The Statue of Liberty has been covered with a burka (the traditional
covering of Arab women), launching a cross-country rampage of burka-ed
statues. The government sees this as high treason and goes after
Khalid Amir, an Arabic history professor at Denver State who is
in fact no terrorist. But he is a gay man and a cross dresser –
worse crimes in some eyes. In short, nothing is sacred. Characters
are wildly exaggerated and scenes are replete with physical shtick
and hilarious exchanges.
Under Craig J. George’s facile direction,
the story moves nonstop from scene to scene, with Joan Barber, Amir
Darvish, Amanda Duarte, Alexander Elisa, John Fico, Norm Golden,
and Tyler Hollinger as partners in crime. But particularly worthy
of note are Fico as the nutty FBI man and Hollinger as a self-important
television reporter.
The fringe festival is necessarily a collection
of plays-in-process, and this offering is one of the better. Monica
Bauer has a wild imagination, a unique style, and a way with language.
Updated
8/6/08

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critic Irene Backalenick covers theater for national and
regional publications. She has a Ph.D. in theater criticism
from City University Graduate Center. Her book “East
Side Story – Ten Years with the Jewish Repertory Theatre”
won a first-place national book award in history. She welcomes
comments at IreneBack@sbcglobal.net and invites you to visit
her website: nytheaterscene.com or at: jewish-theatre.com.
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