Philadelphian Seth Rozin is the Artistic Director of the Interact Theatre Company. He is also a playwright with two (yes, TWO) of his plays being mounted in Philly this month. (The other, A Passing Wind, being performed at the Innovation Studio at the Kimmel.). With so many great local companies in the city, I never had the chance to see an Interact production – until now. When Rozin described his play to me – at the Barrymore Awards party last year – as a “vaudeville routine about Jews in Afghanistan”, I just had to see this production. And I did, last week, and it is great! In the 90 minutes the show played out – with just two actors on stage – I laughed a lot!
It helps (but is not required) if you are of the Jewish faith; and I’m not sure why a quarter of the production’s four-week run was scheduled during the Jewish holiday of Passover (leaving a good portion of its target audience to find seats in the small Adrienne Theater on other nights). But – as with vaudeville, where Jewish comics were the “meat” of the show – humor crosses all boundaries.
The plot is simple: there are only two Jews left in Kabul – their rabbi has just died – and they want to continue practicing their religion in what is left of their mostly-destroyed synagogue. The problem is that they hate each other. They quickly learn that, not only do they need to work together to keep their faith alive, but also each can contribute something to the project. Ishag has memorized the Torah while Zeblyah is an expert at calligraphy (and punctuation!). As the show progresses they re-write the Torah that they need for their services. As Ishag recites (an amazing memory job by actor Tom Teti) and Zeblyah writes (with some very funny physical comedy shtick by John Pietrowski), they comment on the text of the bible, whether it be about keeping kosher or the subject of lesbians (trust me, it’s there!). And you will begin to rethink some of the ideas you THOUGHT were in the bible.
It’s not ALL comedy and the ending will put a lump in your throat, which may be sore from laughing so much up to that point.
This is not a world premiere. Though it is listed as a “Philadelphia Premiere” in the Program, it was actually developed at PlayPenn in 2009 with the same two actors. They’ve honed their parts so they virtually live them on stage each night.
The play is only here for two more weeks and I highly recommend it. I’m sure glad Rozin convinced me to see his “vaudeville”. Let me convince YOU!
Steve Ramm
