We’re about to begin our last week of Malamud in Mountain View. The rave from the Mercury News is appended below. It’s been just as satisfying as I’d hoped to put together The Magic Barrel with The Jewbird., though some of my earlier assumptions have been challenged. See, I’d always seen Saltzman the Marriage Broker and Schwartz the Jewbird as essentially the same character – or at least the same archetype – the trickster/clown/holy fool that pops up in Jewish writing in the legends about the prophet Elijah, Hasidic tales, Jewish jokes and stand-up comedy (think Lenny Bruce). Now there may be some truth in that, but Aaron Davidman said, after seeing an early rehearsal that he saw an even stronger connection between the characters of Leo Finkle in Barrel and Schwartz in Jewbird. Both longing for love and acceptance. Thoughts?
`2 x Malamud' takes a magical journey
JEWISH COMPANY'S STAGINGS OF WORK NEAR PERFECTION
Article Launched: 08/16/2007 01:50:19 AM PDT
The acclaimed troupe opened its homage to Bernard Malamud, "2 x Malamud," over the past weekend at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. The company has staged "The Magic Barrel" and "The Jewbird" before, and its depth of commitment to the material has paid off handsomely. Both these one-acts have been burnished to the point of perfection, from their dreamlike tone to their whimsical props. Directed by Joel Mullennix and Sheila Balter, the exquisitely etched revivals show off the artistry of the acting company, as well as the richness of writer's palette.
Staged in the style of the Word for Word company, "2 x Malamud" transposes these short stories verbatim from page to stage. The cast embodies every element in the text, from protagonists to passing clouds, as if each word, each pause, each punctuation were central to the theme. The technique forges an intimacy between the actors and the text, a magical sense of ritual incantation that casts a spell over the audience.
Jeri Lynn Cohen, Max Gordon Moore and Traveling Jewish Theatre founder Corey Fischer etch the key characters in each story. Watching them metamorphose from piece to piece is part of the evening's theatrical alchemy. The scope and depth of the acting gives us a glimpse into the breadth of Malamud's art.
In "The Magic Barrel," Moore plays the twitchy rabbinical student Leo Finkle, desperately searching for a wife but scared to death of women. Enter the marriage broker, Pinye Salzman (the sublimely funny Fischer), who's eager to make any match that will put a few pennies in his threadbare pockets. They eye each other warily across a dank New York hovel, bargaining over potential brides like so many baseball trading cards.
The rapport of the actors with their characters cuts so deep that the play bristles with life and breathtaking eccentricity. The physical specificity of the performances is as acute as the cadence of the language.
Finkle cowers under the covers of his bed, terrified of life. Salzman sucks the flesh off a tiny white fish like a starving alley cat. As the lonely Lily Hirschorn, Cohen radiates the brittle enthusiasm of a woman out to snatch a husband, driven by the fear that life is passing her by.
It comes as a revelation to see these actors so utterly transformed in "The Jewbird," a dark little parable about assimilation. If the characters in "The Magic Barrel" are steeped in the past, the figures in "The Jewbird" are hellbent on casting off the old ways.
Respect for tradition is not in Harry Cohen's (Moore) genes. A frozen-food salesman who pairs long black socks with khaki shorts and a fat cigar, Harry has an ego as large as his belly. Moore puffs himself up with the bluster and pomposity of a man who would deny someone else their right to their ethnicity.
In this instance, Harry takes on the black crow who flies into his Bronx apartment on threadbare wings. His name is Schwartz (Fischer), and he's a herring-eating, prayer-chanting black bird seeking asylum for a world with no refuge for those who want to keep the old customs.
The bird says he's on the run from anti-Semites, which earns him the pity and kindness of Harry's wife, Edie (a graceful turn by Cohen), and their son, Morrie (Tamar Cohn). But not Harry. He responds to Schwartz's neediness with, first, disdain and, then, brutality.
Huddled in the corner, fearful of both Harry and the ravenous family cat, Fischer's bird is as ornery as he is wretched. The actor turns him into a tragicomic figure, a cross between an old vaudeville ham and a latter-day Lear, yearning for shelter from the storm but unwilling to sacrifice his integrity until the end. The gravitas the actor brings to this role elevates the fantastical fable into a melancholy meditation on identity.
The upshot: A Traveling Jewish Theater cast a literary spell on its audience with a magical evening of Malamud.
Where: Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St.
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays
Through: Aug. 26
Tickets: $15-$44; (650) 903-6000, www.atjt.com
Contact Karen D'Souza at kdsouza@mercurynews.com or (408) 271-3772. See her theater blog at blogs.mercextra.com/aei.
