15
Sep/19

THE TALMUD

15
Sep/19
The Talmud

Meta-Phys. Ed. multimedia production brings together the Talmud and Kung Fu movies (photo by Jenny Sharp)

The Doxsee @ Target Margin Theater
232 52nd St. between Second & Third Aves., Sunset Park
Through September 28, $20-$25
866-811-4111
www.targetmargin.org/talmud

In his 2012 book A Kosher Christmas: ’Tis the Season to Be Jewish, Rabbi Joshua Eli Plaut discusses, among other things, American Jewish families’ penchant for eating Chinese food every December 25 and San Francisco’s annual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy show, taking place December 24-26 this year, providing “Jewish comedy on Christmas in a Chinese restaurant.” Experimental theater director Jesse Freedman, who cofounded Meta-Phys. Ed. in 2011 with Rabbi Bronwen Mullin, has found another connection between Jewish and Chinese culture, turning it into a new multimedia show, The Talmud, which opened last night at the Doxsee @ Target Margin Theater in Sunset Park.

“The Talmud is a very exciting and important Jewish text and is incredibly difficult to understand,” he explains in a statement. “I was watching a Kung Fu movie and thought, ‘This Kung Fu movie reminds me of the Talmud.’ I started to learn more Talmud and thought, ‘This reminds me of Kung Fu movies.’ I started to watch and learn more about Chinese martial arts cinema, my appreciation for them deepened, and the world of the Talmud, which had previously been opaque to me, started to make sense.” As a Jew and a Kung Fu movie fan, I fully understand where Freedman is coming from. The Talmud, consisting of the Mishnah and the Gemara, is a dense text that examines Jewish law and customs, requiring years of study to grasp its labyrinthine breadth. However, not even years of study will help you figure out what is happening in most Kung Fu movies, whether they are in Chinese or English. Trying to figure out the plot in films that have been dubbed into English rather than subtitled is especially confusing and entertaining, worthy of its own Mishnah investigation. Freedman’s complex production fits right in with those themes.

The Talmud (photo by Jenny Sharp)

The Talmud continues at the Doxsee @ Target Margin Theater in Sunset Park through September 28 (photo by Jenny Sharp)

Continuing through September 28, The Talmud is set on a chessboard floor with several long, narrow, translucent curtains, reminiscent of Chinese scroll paintings, onto which Hebrew words from the Talmud are projected, as well as live streams of the action occurring onstage, courtesy of an iPhone basically strapped to the stomach of actress Lucie Allouche. (The senic design is by Kyu Shin, with projections by Lacey Erb and costumes by Karen Boyer.) Allouche, Abrielle Kuo, Eli M. Schoenfeld, and Jae Woo detail stories from one chapter of the Talmud, including the complex law of Sicarii, the case of mistaken identity involving enemies Kamtza and bar Kamtza and Nero, and the battle between zealots and sages over peace with the Romans. These pieces are dense with meaning that is difficult to follow within the play’s narrative; as you are still evaluating what you have just seen, the next tale proceeds, jumbling together in your mind. The show is punctuated by choreographed Kung Fu movement among the four actors, occasionally enhanced with swooshing sound effects; the score is by Avi Amon, with lovely music performed onstage by Lu Liu on pipa. The Talmud is a well-crafted production, with good performances and intriguing staging, but, like reading the Talmud and watching Kung Fu movies, you’ll be left scratching your head, not quite fully sated.