Review: Jewish theater weaves ten true stories for a compelling show
History happens when we are paying attention to other things. It sometimes takes a few days, years, or decades to realize that we were in a moment where things changed, or a moment that helped to define an overall era or movement.
The Braid Theater in Santa Monica, formerly the Jewish Women’s Theater, is exploring true stories of what ordinary people were doing in historic periods whether it was the LGBT movement, the Vietnam War, or COVID-19, in a performance entitled “The Rest is History.”
Several artists collaborate to tell ten stories—artists who include the writers of the autobiographical stories, directors, and actors. The moments range from heartbreaking to humorous from thoughtful to romantic.
They opened on May 15 and 16 and will continue on May 20 and 24. The stories are delivered over Zoom and are followed by talkbacks with the different artists who share their roles in the process.
The Braid specializes in “salon” stories, which they describe as an intersection between storytelling and theater in which actors perform stories without costume or set. The result looks very much like staged readings as actors have binders in hand, though they rarely appear to consult them. Nor does the Zoom camera close-ups show the binders except when they are opening and closing.
“The Rest is History” opens with “Hawaiian Songbird” in which a young Jewish elementary student is asked to sing a solo of “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” It closes with an improv comedian talking about how the news that he was Meghan Markle’s first kiss has overshadowed all his other accomplishments in life.
Five actors each do multiple stories and, as one of the writers said after the show, they convincingly sound as if they are telling their own stories, each fraught with understated emotion that is compelling and draws the viewer in.
There is a certain intimacy to each performance. Each face fills the screen and it is almost as if the actors are making eye contact with each unseen viewer.
“The Rest is History” is part of The Braid’s NEXT Emerging Artists Program in which emerging artists participating in a year-long program curate and direct each performance. This results in each monologue having a slightly different style and pacing, brought together by Aysa Wax who was the lead director and imposed a feeling of gestalt to the entire production.
It is impressive that each director guides the actors in finding the sensitive moments in each story and to create an enjoyable pacing, which is often the downfall of many Zoom shows. Pauses are present, but not elongated. Stories are shared with an urgency that doesn’t overpower.
It is almost impossible to group shows by theme because, being true stories, they each have a complexity that can’t be easily shoehorned into a box. A story can be both poignant and funny, both heartbreaking and uplifting.
The individual stories are:
Hawaiian Songbird: Actor Cliff Weissman convinces you he is a young student struggling with how to live his Jewishness in an all-Christian environment. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, he tells the story with great sincerity, finding the wry humor in Sharon Bonin Pratt’s experience.
Friend or Foe: What happens when history from a world away keeps children apart? Lisa Kaminir tells the story of Jodi Marcus, a woman who is recalling a rocky relationship she had as a young Jewish girl with a Palestinian classmate. They tormented each other through elementary school and junior high. Kaminir captures the profound feeling of loss that Marcus feels when she realizes how they sabotaged each other unnecessarily.
Southern Politesse: The author of this piece chose to remain anonymous, perhaps because what gets shared is so intensely personal and shares deeply a family experience. Bonnie He plays the role of the author who is helping to canvass in Georgia at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 to get out the vote in the Senate run-offs. It is a story that touches on the deep roots of racism and how lessons taught can be turned on their ear to help provide healing a little bit at a time.
Massages at Ground Zero: Author Marissa Tiamfook Gee and Actor Miata Edoga recognize absurdity amidst tragedy and explore how we move through moments in history trying to find our way to help and to process. The author is in New York on 9-11, new to her job as a lawyer. Seeking for a way to help, she covertly joins some Scientologists to be able to help at Ground Zero. It is a different sort of 9-11 story, but one that recalls the depth of horror and sadness of those who lived through it.
Interrupted. Set in the middle of the show, this is one of the most heart-rending and difficult to watch of the shows, the one that brings the audience closest to tears. Joshua Silverstein plays the part of an army officer charged with informing families that their sons have died. Written by Paul Itkin, the story reveals the impossible task of changing people’s lives forever by delivering the news. Silverstein is joined by Edoga and Weissman who play the parents he must visit. All of them make the most of the few minutes they have to deliver an unforgettable performance of loss and grief.
Love in an Envelope. There is so much joy in Barbara Kroll’s story of how she met her bashert, Ruth. Kaminir’s performance bubbles over with the affection she feels for her partner as she tells how they met in 1979, a time when she says Ruth, a British lesbian, wasn’t just in the closet, she was in a vault. During the talkback, the two women, who have now been together for more than 40 years, said people today need to know what it was like to be LGBT in those days where she said if you rattled off those initials, people would think you were talking about Middle Eastern airlines.
Choose a Box. Being put into a box is usually metaphorical, but sometimes it becomes slightly more literal. He tells David Chiu’s story of being asked to fill out his primary identification on an application to the University of California-Davis. One parent is a white, Lithuanian Jew, the other is Asian American. But the college only wants one box checked, so which identity does she deny? Her upbeat performance becomes underlined when she delivers her final line with a decidedly different beat.
Silence. Weissman captures the emotional challenge of a father who is feeling the burden of Yom Kippur and not wanting to pass on the silence of generations to his children. Written by Mihai Grunfeld, the story recalls the havoc wreaked upon families by the Nazi concentration camps of World War II and how it continues generations later to create barriers.
Donut. Moving forward from the effects of the Holocaust, the next story tells of the fallout from COVID-19, an effect felt in a very personal way which Edoga captures with great beauty, making immediate the sense of fear and loss that writer Jodie Mendelson Kay feels.
And Then She Kissed Me. In this Braid-commissioned story, Silverman is both writer and actor. He tells his own story of finding out that on a Larry King episode in 2013, Meghan Markle told the world that her first kiss was with Silverman. Once she became engaged to Harry, the tabloids were out for any story they could get—including his. Wax was wise to place this at the end as it lifted up the audience from the heart-wrenching moments and left them with laughter.
Salon shows seem especially well-suited to Zoom, bringing a collection of authentic stories to the world. Each of the ten stories is given superb attention to detail, to pacing and to providing an emotional and narrative arc.
None of these stories are likely to make it into the history books, but each of them reflects how individuals everywhere experience the events which change our world.
The Rest is History
The Braid
Thursday, May 20, 7:30 p.m. PST
Monday, May 24, 7:30 p.m. PST
Tickets $10 Students, $20 general admission, $25 household, $36 VIP that includes a pre-performance discussion with artistic director and special guests.
https://jewishwomenstheatre.secure.force.com/ticket/PatronTicket__PublicTicketApp#/events/a0Sf400000HKFP0EAP