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Pilgrims’ progress
Jerusalem is worth visiting
BY IRIS FANGER

Jerusalem
By Seth Greenland. Directed by Rick Lombardo. Set by Kristin Loeffler. Lighting by Franklin Meissner Jr. Costumes by Frances Nelson McSherry. Original music and sound design by Haddon Kime. With Barbara Blossom, Laurie Dawn, Allison Dunbar, Benjamin Evett, Robert Saoud, and Bates Wilder. At New Repertory Theatre through October 20.


Seth Greenland takes on the spiritual malaise that affects so many members of contemporary American society in his new play Jerusalem. He succeeds only by half, partly because of his reliance on character stereotypes straight out of television sit-coms, partly because of a clunky first act. But when in the second act he takes off on flights of fantasy (with the image of a Cessna heading straight for the sun), the possibilities he sets up for personal redemption made me long for a similar revelation.

Greenland’s major problem is his enormous appetite for issues, and the way they’re stuffed into a play that lasts nearly three hours in this thoughtful East Coast premiere directed by Rick Lombardo. It’s not enough that lapsed-Jew Will, a New York–based psychiatrist, finds himself so burned out from his practice that he starts hearing voices. His wife, Meg, can think of nothing but her infertility, and besides, their marriage is in trouble. A Christmas visit to Wisconsin with Meg’s most Protestant of families, who behave like a Middle American version of the Bunkers, only ratchets up the number of subjects on Greenland’s agenda.

In Wisconsin, we’re bombarded by the dysfunctions of Meg’s family. There’s Mom, who can’t think beyond her bodily workings; sister Glory, the Martha Stewart of Main Street; her husband, Bing, who has some tics of his own; and brother Fisher, just home from Asia for the holiday. The characters make up a check list of the playwright’s complaints: the accumulation of consumer goods, sham marriages, neglected children, and the narcissistic attitudes of the Me First generation. With no solution likely on native soil, Greenland moves his characters to Israel — before the current horrors — on a vacation trip that Will and Meg hope will heal their differences. To their chagrin, her family tag along.

The first act of Greenland’s " modern fable " has enough exposition to fill a shelf of novels the size of Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks and John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga. Tony Kushner begins Homebody/Kabul, his new play about an English woman who goes to Afghanistan for enlightenment, with an hour-long monologue, delivered straight to the audience, in which the Homebody tells us what’s sent her on a pilgrimage; Greenland’s first act is an endless series of short scenes separated by blackouts. Do we really need to see the Church Christmas pageant, complete with the actors pretending to be oxen at the manger, to apprehend the shallowness of Meg’s family’s religious beliefs?

In the second act, however, Greenland, abetted by the New Rep cast, begins to address the characters’ despair. It’s as if the golden glow of Jerusalem’s ancient bricks were radiating peace and personal knowledge, allowing each American to come to his or her journey’s end. Lombardo gets the actors — and the audience — through act one by focusing on the gag lines, at the same time preparing for the change of tone ahead.

American Repertory Theatre company stalwart Benjamin Evett jumps ship for this production, turning in one of the most moving performances of his Boston-area career. As Will, who takes on the faith of his fathers almost in spite of himself, Evett constantly plays beneath the lines to create an in-depth portrait of a basically decent man trying to break the patterns imposed on him by his training. Bates Wilder, who gave a chilling performance in the title role of Killer Joe at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater several seasons back, is the other standout: by the climax, he’s made Bing’s unexpected transformation acceptable.

Allison Dunbar, who recently moved to Boston from Los Angeles, where she had a featured role on the Comedy Central series Strip Mall, is fine as Meg. One might wish that Barbara Blossom and Laurie Dawn, as Meg’s mom and sister, had not been encouraged to overplay the country-bumpkin aspects of their roles at the beginning. Robert Saoud deserves special praise for making such quick changes in a variety of supporting roles, though he also might tone down his first scene. Kristin Loeffler’s ever-moving scenery, enhanced by Franklin Meissner Jr.’s lighting, uses the small stage to suggest the Holy Land and the spell it has cast on the playwright as well as on his characters.

Issue Date: September 26 - October 3, 2002
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