The Chosen

The Chosen
By Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok, adapted from the novel by Chaim Potok. Moira Blumenthal Productions and Encounters@Shalom. Shalom College, University of NSW. August 27 – September 14, 2014.

Razor sharp minds debate the intricacies of Talmudic scriptures weaving spiritual numerology into the mix. Ultra-orthodox Jews compete with observant Jews on the baseball field.  Zionists wrestle with non-Zionists.

How could such a play have resonance outside the Jewish community you may ask?  And yet the Catholic couple I spoke to after this production said they were hooked almost immediately.

The Chosen, as both a novel and play, serves as a beacon for how people who have different beliefs can become friends. In a world where people of the same religion are tearing each other apart, it is refreshing and relevant 50 years after it was written.

The venue for this production is on the cramped side.  The conference room of Shalom College at the University of New South Wales is about the size of two classrooms joined together.  

Tony Youlden’s lighting design gets the audience into the mood and even more compensation for the space arrives with the captivating performances of the two teenage boys. Their characters live just five blocks from each other in New York during the tumultuous period at the end of the Second World War.

Anthony Darvall played the brainy mathematician Reuven.

Gabriel McCarthy was Danny Saunders the son of the spiritual leader of an ultra-orthodox community. Both fooled this writer into believing that they must be Jewish, such was their dexterity in the religious scenes.

The glue of this production was Daniel Mitchell, as Reb Saunders. He was charismatic and dynamic in his portrayal of a troubled father who communicates with son through silence.

I was told this was the first production of this play in Australia, and if that is not quite accurate it is certainly rarely performed.

An unusual location it may be – but making it to get to this theatre is well worth the effort.

David Spicer

Photographer: Geoff Sirmai

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