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Friday February 10, 2006

Short stories get full-length treatment in stellar ‘Alchemy’

by suzanne weiss
correspondent

A woman honors her dead mother through a recalled series of gentle, nagging criticisms. An entire life and a marriage are described through the mundane events of a single day. And, best of all, a shy young rabbinical student seeks out a bride.

These are the elements of “Family Alchemy,” the delightful new production at Traveling Jewish Theatre in San Francisco. Lovers of good storytelling, superb acting and innovative theater are hereby advised to run — not walk — to see this show, as did an overflow crowd on opening night, which also happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 5.

Directed by Joel Mullennix, a veteran of Word-for-Word, “Alchemy” uses the story theater technique perfected by that troupe to tell two tales by Grace Paley and one by Bernard Malamud. So, what could be bad? Certainly not the cast. TJT veterans and founding members Corey Fischer and Naomi Newman are joined by newcomers Jeri Lynn Cohen and Max Gordon Moore in a tour de force display of ensemble acting.

The Word-for-Word technique requires all the words of the author, including “he said” and “she said,” to be included in the performance. While each in the quartet of performers gets a chance to shine (Act Two is a virtual duet for Fischer and Moore while Newman is center stage in Act One), they all play a variety of cameo roles. These range from an Italian greengrocer (Moore) to a gossipy landlady (Newman), a puffed-up bureaucrat (Fischer) and an opinionated butcher (Cohen). Each is terrific in every part.

The first short story, Paley’s “Mother,” is as short as the last, Malamud’s great “The Magic Barrel,” is long. Cohen simply recalls her dead mother (Newman), standing in various doorways — nagging, criticizing — and realizes how much she misses her.

This is followed by the longer “The Story Hearer,” also by Paley, in which a woman (Newman) recounts the events of her day to her somewhat silent spouse (Fischer). The woman, a stand-in for the famously liberal author, is a perfect fit for the elegant actress. Her story begins in hilarity, as she encounters various people in the supermarket, and ends with a sweet sadness as she wishes, like the biblical matriarch Sarah, for a child she is too old to bear.

Excellent as these offerings are, they pale beside “The Magic Barrel,” a powerhouse of a tale that gave its title to the anthology that won Malamud the 1958 National Book Award.

It’s the story of a shy young rabbinical student, Leo Finkel, who turns to the decrepit elderly matchmaker, Pinye Saltzman, to find him a wife. Moore is wonderful as the neurotic nebbish of a hopeful bridegroom and, as the older man, Fischer turns the eating of a piece of fish into high-comic art. This tale, like “The Story Hearer,” is very, very funny — until the poignant surprise ending, which hits you right in the heart.

All the action takes place in front of Kate Boyd’s silhouette of an urban skyline with the occasional table and chairs, bed and grocery counter wheeled in when needed. A. Rene Walker’s costumes are spot on, from the matchmaker’s worn rags and tallit to the neighborhood women’s white socks and housedresses. Cohen, especially, wears her ’40s chic to perfection as a series of women in the student’s life.

This production is the third and presumably last in a series of Traveling Jewish Theatre collaborations with Word-for-Word, beginning with Malamud’s “The Jewbird” and continuing with “Windows and Mirrors.” Too bad. You can’t get too much of such a good thing.

“Family Alchemy” plays through Feb. 26 at Traveling Jewish Theatre, 470 Florida St., S.F.; March 2-12 at Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. Shows at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Tickets: $12-$30. Information: (415) 522-0786 or www.atjt.com.