NYC-based comedian Alex Edelman's comedy special
Just for Us, about that time he, a Jewish man, attended a White Nationalist meeting in Queens, won both a Special Tony Award and an Emmy Award (it's available on Max, where I watched it). A comedy show may seem like an odd choice for a theater, but it's really less of a stand-up show than it is a solo storytelling show, like you may see at a fringe festival. And in fact, it debuted at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018. Six Points Theater's Artistic Director Barbara Brooks has inquired about the rights for years, so when they finally became available (after Alex performed it over 500 times), Six Points became the first theater in the country to produce it. And #TCTheater artist Ryan London Levin became the first actor to perform it, other than the playwright. It's a brilliantly written piece (don't just take my word for it - ask the Emmy and Tony voters!), confronting some really ugly parts of our world with humor and honesty. Ryan gives a fantastic performance (you'd never know it was his first solo show), and I really can't imagine anyone else in the role (other than Alex, of course). This show is really funny and engaging, using laughter as a weapon against bigotry and hate. I think the world could use a little more of that.
See it at Highland Park Community Center now through November 10.
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| Ryan London Levin as Alex Edelman (photo by Sarah Whiting) |
In about 90 minutes, Alex (here played by Ryan) tells a story about the time he trolled the trolls, if you will. After seeing anti-Semitic comments about a radio play he did in the UK, he started following these... people in a Twitter list. When he sees a tweet about a White Nationalist meeting in Queens the next day, he decides to go. Why? Because when artists are confronted with something difficult or troubling, they make art. The story of the meeting would be riveting on its own (he doesn't tell anyone he's Jewish so he's able to sit in on the discussion and even take part in it, he develops a crush on one of the other attendees, and is finally "outed" with disastrous results), but interspersed with this main story he talks about his family, his childhood growing up Jewish in a racist part of Boston (known as Boston), and other stories related to his Jewish identity. The piece is brilliantly constructed to keep us engaged in the main story, while also enjoying the side stories, and written in a conversational way that endears us to the storyteller.
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| Ryan London Levin as Alex Edelman (photo by Sarah Whiting) |
And the storyteller here really couldn't be more charming. At times I felt like I was watching Alex, but filtered through the person of Ryan. He's so open and personable, responding to the audiences' reactions, with no pretense that he's not there in front of us, telling us a story. But at the same time, this isn't a stagnant stand-at-a-mic-and-talk kind of storytelling show. In fact there's no mic (none needed in the intimate auditorium where Six Points performs), and Ryan uses every inch of the stage in a performance that's physical, emotional, and true, with dynamic staging from director J.C. Cutler. The pair also achieve the perfect comedic timing throughout the show.
Lighting and sound design help to make the story more theatrical, adding color to some of the vignettes. The modern two-level set includes a backdrop of gray- and blue-toned geometric shapes, some of which actually light up in different colors. This is the kind of piece that would absolutely work with just the words delivered as written on the page, but the design and the direction bring it to fuller life. (Scenic Design by Brady Whitcomb, lighting design by Todd M. Reemtsma, sound design by Anita Kelling.)
I saw two excellent plays last weekend that deal with Jewish identity, and while they couldn't be more different in tone (
see also the super intense but absolutely rewarding The Ally at Mixed Blood Theatre), both are similar in the way they use theater and storytelling to bring light to challenging topics that are very real and scary in our world right now. In difficult times, I always look to the artists for hope and to help make sense of things, and both of these plays are great examples of that.
