We went to spend the week-end at Rosebud, Alberta. The well known theatre company here is performing "My Name is Asher Lev" adapted from the book by Chaim Potok a famous Jewish American author and Rabbi.
The play follows Asher Lev a young Hasidic Jew who has an incredible passion for drawing and painting, but his conservative parents consider his creative gift to be a waste of time and foolish. They try to stop him from persuing his art, but his passion is so strong and he is forced to choose between his faith, his art, his parents, his passion, his calling and his God.
Giovanni Mocibob does an excellent job in acting the part of the young artist as he tells the story of his early life, the choices he makes, the rift it causes between himself and his parents, and his Orthodox Jewish community. This was an excellent performance.
Nathan Schmidt plays Ari Levi, the strict committed father. He also plays Jacob Kahn, Asher's artistic mentor. He easily accomplishes these changes of characters right before you on the stage and his acting is intense and real. Again an excellent part.
Heather Pattengale plays Rivka, Asher's mother. She also changes to act out the other female character roles in the play, too. I actually didn't believe that she played the mother role and was the same person that played the other female roles - so she did a great job with the changes. You could sense the pain that she was going thru as the mother. Excellent job.
"My name is Asher Lev" contains quite a bit of Yiddish. I found this to be interesting and also a chance to learn about a different culture and life. When I get home I feel I must find this book and read it.
To sit there and watch these people struggle with the choices that they have to make is heart-wrenching at times. But I also found this play to be inspiring, gripping and heart-felt.
Once again, it was delightful to see this level of talent at Rosebud and I was most grateful that we had decided to spend our evening seeing this play.
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