North Coast Repertory Theatre

It’s always surprising how unwilling we are to admit our underlying sameness as human beings. The Chosen, currently playing at North Coast Rep, is such a profound human drama about fathers, sons, parental expectations, fear, religion and what matters in life that it will touch believers and nonbelievers alike.

Based on Chaim Potok’s 1967 novel of the same name, The Chosen is about the difficult but profound friendship between two boys in 1944 Brooklyn. Young Reuven Malter (Tom Zohar) lives with his father, David (Craig Huisenga), a writer and Zionist. The grown-up Reuven (Ralph Elias) narrates, Our Town style, and occasionally interacts with the proceedings.

Danny Saunders (Christopher M. Williams) lives with his strict Orthodox rabbi father, Reb Saunders (Robert Grossman), a legend and tzaddik (holy man) to the community, but a trial to his son. Reb Saunders, it seems, quotes the Torah but barely speaks to Danny.

Danny and Reuven’s friendship starts off on the wrong foot when they meet at a baseball game (Hassidim vs. liberals) during which Danny’s line drive hits Reuven in the eye, fortunately causing only temporary problems. Much to their surprise, and throughout a course of several hospital visits, the two boys find they like each other.

It soon becomes clear that what holds Danny back is fear, visible in his hunched demeanor and downcast eyes. Danny is afraid to tell his father that Reuven is his friend, and afraid to reveal his career choice. Reb Saunders is afraid Danny will stray from the fold and become a secularist. Meanwhile, Reuven’s father cannot understand how Reb Saunders can say of the Holocaust that “it is God’s will,” nor why he is unwilling to push for a Jewish state. Reuven suffers more from indecision than fear, as he ponders career choices.

There are powerful and profound ideas here, and director David Ellenstein has assembled a pitch-perfect cast to deliver the lines, so relevant even today. Williams, reprising his role at the Arizona Jewish Theatre, is astonishing and poignant as Danny. It is impossible not to feel his hurt.

Grossman’s Reb Saunders is a terrifying presence, dressed in black with a flowing God beard, but also manages to communicate more awareness of and empathy for his son’s needs than Danny dares hope. His final monologue brought tears to many.

Huisenga and Zohar are excellent as the Malters, and Elias’ grown-up Reuven hovers like a kindly Greek chorus, both advancing the plot and becoming part of the action.

I’ve loved theater for years; with this play I was reminded why. It’s a production that shouldn’t be missed.

The Chosen plays through Oct. 24 at North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach. Performances are Thursday-Saturday at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday at 2:00 and 7:00 p.m. Call (858) 481-1055, toll-free at (888) 776-6278; or visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to North Coast Rep’s website.

Diversionary Theatre

Lee Blessing is at the top of my pantheon of favorite playwrights for his amazing A Walk in the Woods, which achieves the near impossible, taking a conversation between an American and a Russian diplomat that takes place on a park bench during the days of the Soviet Union and turning it into riveting theater.

Now Diversionary Theatre brings us Blessing’s Thief River, a much trickier and less successful piece about homophobia and the social costs of being gay in America, directed by Interim Executive Director Jeffrey Ingman. Thief River portrays two men at three stages of life, going from the night of their high school prom to middle age, and revisiting them again at age 71.

The play takes place in an unoccupied farm house in rural Minnesota and opens in 1948. The plot revolves around Gil (Lance Meeker), openly gay and regularly persecuted for it, and Ray (Dale Jeter), attracted to Gil but unwilling to admit it publicly. The night of their prom, Gil is beaten by a drifter named Harlow (Devlin Dolan) and found by Ray.

Gil and Ray are undeniably attracted to each other, and Gil tries to convince Ray to move to New York with him after graduation. But Ray denies his attraction and stays down on the farm, marries and raises a family. The two continue to write letters, but have no other contact until they meet again in 1973, and then once more in 2001 as old men.

Audience members have to pay close attention to keep up with this script, in which time shifts back and forth, unpeeling layers of the onion with each move – with “future” scenes sometimes revealing something in the past that has not yet been presented onstage. This scattershot approach to time confuses more than it intrigues, and needs help from an imaginative set designer. Unfortunately, James Ferguson’s uni-level design doesn’t lend much.

Complicating things even more, each of the six actors plays two characters, some of whom contribute more symmetry to the structure than relevance to the plot.

Time is out of joint, and unfortunately so is this production, suffering not just from Blessing’s vagaries but also from some unfortunate casting. Though perhaps the script can be held responsible for characters like Kit (Jeter), the young, stereotypical screaming queen presented as the object of the middle-aged Gil’s affection, the chubby Jeter seems vaguely uncomfortable as both Kit and the young Ray. Perhaps he’ll settle in as the run continues.

Most effective are Dolan as the middle-aged Gil, reading poignant letters from Ray, and Lloyd Gray and Jonathan Dunn-Rankin as the aging Gil and Ray.

The trend in theater seems to be toward intricacy and tricky stagecraft. Blessing may have had a larger, richer theater in mind or he may have been aiming toward cinema, where time shifts and characters could more easily be defined.

On the stage, there’s a lot to be said for simplicity. This play might work better with a linear structure. As it is, patrons have to work too hard to keep the characters and action straight.

Thief River runs through Oct. 3 at Diversionary Theatre. Shows are Thursday-Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 7:00 p.m. Call (619) 220-0097, or visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to Diversionary’s website.