Imagine this.
You are Jewish and by some miracle, you manage to survive the World War II concentration camps. Exhausted, emaciated, you find your way back to the home you left in terror years or months ago.
And there, waiting for you in almost laughably cruel irony, is a gas bill – overdue.
Overdue bills for utilities – used by the foreign occupiers of their homes – really were delivered and this true bit of history forms the nugget of Theatre Ariel’s production, “Amsterdam,” running Nov. 14 through 24 at Christ Church Neighborhood House.
“It’s by an Israeli playwright, Maya Arad Yasur,” said Jesse Bernstein, artistic director of the city’s only Jewish theater company. “And it’s the story of an Israeli ex-pat musician trying to assimilate into the cultural life of Amsterdam” in present day, when she receives a gas bill dating from 1944, near the end of World War II.
“It throws her into an identity crisis of her Jewishness, her sense of being a foreigner in Amsterdam, and the legacy of the Holocaust,” he said.
And yes, given the gas death chambers in the concentration camps, the choice of an overdue gas bill was deliberate.
“Part of the play is asking: Can we ever get out of the shadow of past traumas?” Bernstein said. “What does it mean to live somewhere where the bill for past traumas has not been paid? What is the narrative you tell yourself to assimilate and fit in with the majority culture, and what ways are you OK navigating that and not navigating that?
“Even though the story is specifically about a Jewish woman living in Amsterdam, many people live somewhere where tragedies have been committed against their people and their families,” he said. “In the U.S., you can talk about slavery, you can talk about the treatment of Native Americans, you can talk about Japanese internments.”
Bernstein describes the play as visual and visceral with an unusual twist in the telling. Instead of an actor cast to play the Israeli ex-pat musician, four storytellers try to make sense of the tale. Sometimes, they are voices in her head. Sometimes they are narrators who disagree about the facts. Each has a version.
“Amsterdam” is Theatre Ariel’s first mainstage production in 15 years, Bernstein said.
Theatre Ariel’s history dates back 30 years ago. Under the leadership of Deborah Baer Mozes, the company staged shows and toured them around the nation. But the 2008 recession forced them to regroup when theaters could no longer afford to bring the company to their stages.
The company began and continues its salon series – presenting readings of plays to intimate audiences in synagogues or in people’s homes, mostly on the Main Line, Bernstein said.
Next up in the salon series this season is “The God of Isaac,” set for Jan. 25 through Feb. 2, about an Illinois man who is casual about his Judaism, until he learns that a Neo-Nazi group plans to march in his old neighborhood. In March, “Good for the Jews” will evoke Jewish joy in an evening of four short, one-act plays. Last, April 26 through May 4, is “The Goldsmith,” about the experience of Mizrahi Jews — Jews from Iraq, Iran, and North Africa.
“We’re not an Israeli theater company — we’re a Jewish theater company,” said Bernstein, who is also directing the play. “This play happens to be about an Israeli, although I chose it pre-October 7,” the date of the Hamas attacks in Israel last year.
Bernstein said that Jewish theater companies like Theatre Ariel have multiple goals. “One is to explore the diversity of Jewish history, thought, and experience, and to tell those stories authentically in a way that another theater could not or would not, and then also for the Jewish community to be able to see themselves in all their myriad ways on stage.
“For Jews, connecting culture to Judaism through a play is one way they can connect to their Judaism,” he said, “and for the non-Jewish audience, a way to buck stereotypes and create empathy.
“For many Jews, they are looking for places to gather and feel communal and where they can be themselves, so I think that it is a part of it,” he said. “But I’m also hoping to attract a non-Jewish audience.”
Food helps. Opening night $55 tickets include a reception sponsored by Goldie, a vegan Israeli-style falafel eatery and part of a family of restaurants including Zahav, Steve Cook’s and Mike Solomonov’s award-winning restaurant.
Interestingly, Theatre Ariel stages performances on Friday evenings, when some Jewish people would be observing Sabbath at home or at the synagogue.
“We recognize that our Jewish audience members — like the Jewish people themselves — keep Shabbat in many different ways, or choose not to keep it in a traditional sense at all,” the company’s website says. “We welcome all whose practice permits to spend Shabbat at a Theatre Ariel performance.
“Because of Shabbat, we will not do monetary transactions on Friday nights (i.e., selling tickets at the door),” according to the website.
FYI
“Amsterdam,” Theatre Ariel, Nov. 14-24, Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., Phila. 610-667-9230.
