[NEohioPAL]More Praise for "To Know Him"

[eazy03 at aol.com]

FEATURES:

Arts
Final production on Halle stage proves fitting tribute

By: FRAN HELLER Contributing Writer
Student rabbi Penny (Alicia Kahn) tries her best to reunite Harry 
(Reuben Silver, standing) with his dying son Rick (Brian Zoldessy) in 
"To Know Him" at the JCC.

Returning to the Halle Theatre at the Mayfield Jewish Community Center 
after a two-year hiatus evoked mixed emotions for me.

On the one hand, it was thrilling to see the world première of a new 
play, "To Know Him" by Albi Gorn, winner of the 2002 Dorothy Silver 
Playwriting Competition.

Directed by the estimable Dorothy Silver, for whom the competition is 
named, Gorn's heartfelt, thought-provoking play about a gay man dying 
of AIDS and a female rabbinical student who tries to help him, has much 
to commend it.

On the other hand, it was sad knowing that this would be the last 
production ever on the Halle stage. It felt as if the theater's very 
soul had already departed.

In a similar vein, "To Know Him," which runs through May 22, summoned a 
two-fold response.

The play is brimming with ideas about God, religion and prayer, as well 
as about the fractured relationships between parents and children. Some 
of these theological notions, primarily in the first act, feel weighty 
and static, intellectually stimulating but dramatically dull. Once the 
focus changes to human conflict, the play lifts off.

Penny Feingold is a student rabbi doing chaplaincy service at the local 
hospital. One of the patients on her list is Richard Goldstein, a 
middle-aged professor of film history. Following a rocky start between 
the student rabbi and the self-proclaimed atheist, the two find common 
ground in a mutual passion for the movies.

As their friendship develops, they also discover something else in 
common n problems with fathers.

Written with humor, compassion and keen insight, Gorn has a perfectly 
pitched ear for pungent dialogue and the kind of self-deprecating wit 
that can only be described as utterly Jewish. Universal themes that 
give the play heft are those of forgiveness, healing and acceptance.

The play takes place over a month of Tuesdays and Fridays when Penny 
makes her pastoral hospital rounds. The last person Rick wants to see 
is a rabbi, but the persistent Penny won't take "no" for an answer.

All the action occurs in Rick's hospital room. Set designer Tony E. 
Kovacic creates a semiprivate unit with two of everything n beds, 
wheelchairs and nightstands. A backdrop of colorful movie posters 
provides welcome relief to the drab clinical setting.

Much of the first act centers on an argument between Penny and Rick 
over the merits of prayer.

For Rick, a man of science, reason and logic, prayer gets in the way of 
action: People, he says, rely on prayer instead of taking 
responsibility for their own lives. For Penny, God and prayer help 
people cope.

Films are to Rick what prayer is to Penny. Each describes their 
experience as amazing, life-altering and requiring a suspension of 
disbelief. The play's strength lies in its evenhanded discussion of 
both sides of the issue.

The drama gets into high gear in the second act when relationship 
issues replace the religious debate. It's been 40 years since Rick has 
seen his estranged father. Rick overheard his father saying kaddish for 
him when he first learned that his 13-year-old son was gay. Once Rick 
left for college, the two men never saw each other again except once n 
at Rick's mother's funeral.

While the problems confronting Rick and his father appear altogether 
real, the conflict the rabbi has with her (unseen) father feels tacked 
on, a device that drives the narrative.

The play's title derives from the 1958 rock song "To Know Him Is to 
Love Him," which serves as a nice musical refrain and metaphor for the 
play.

To keep the talky piece moving, Rick gets in and out of bed a great 
deal, shuffles to the other side of his room, puts on his socks and 
then takes them off, sips water and goes to the offstage bathroom. The 
seemingly nonstop physical activity can be distracting.

Each of the ten scenes is punctuated by Keith B. Nagy's lighting and by 
Richard B. Ingraham's beeping sounds, simulating a heartbeat growing 
louder and faster as Rick's condition worsens.

The talented Brian Zoldessy makes the dying Rick entirely believable, 
balancing the feistiness of the sardonic religious skeptic and film 
fanatic with the physical frailties of a man nearing death. Zoldessy's 
richly nuanced portrait of the bitter son is filled with the anger and 
sadness of someone who hasn't found too many warm spots in his life.

Reuben Silver brings his equally formidable acting skills to the role 
of the stubborn, difficult father Harry, a boorish, uneducated 
shoemaker dealing with the unbearable twin heartbreaks of a dying gay 
son. The confrontation between him and Rick is gut-wrenching.

Alicia Kahn overacts as the zealous do-gooder Penny, hell-bent on 
making a difference in Rick's life. Kahn's shrill voice and 
in-your-face mannerisms grow irksome. An unconventional rabbinical 
student who is not above swearing, unlatching her own psychological 
baggage or breaking clerical rules does not ring true. Her smart 
attire, by costumer Jenniver Sparano, is appropriate and lovely to look 
at.

Albi Gorn is a playwright/ actor/director who makes his living as a 
court reporter and writes and directs plays in between. His wife Robin 
Ann Joseph, who shares his love of acting and theater, is a cantor at 
Temple Beth Shalom in Hastings-on-Hudson in Westchester, N.Y., where 
the couple resides with their two young children.

The Dorothy Silver Playwriting Competition was first established by 
Lucy and Harry Wolpaw to encourage the continuity of Jewish theater. 
Long may Jewish theater reign in Cleveland n wherever that may be.

The Halle Theatre is at the Mayfield Jewish Community Center, 3505 
Mayfield Road, Cleveland Heights. For tickets, call 216-382-4000. For 
group tickets of ten or more, call 216-593-6258.

A series of post-performance discussions follow select performances.




Copyright 2005 Cleveland Jewish News
Privacy Policy