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Review: Stageworks' 'The Chosen' Is Emotionally Intense

Stageworks

Greg Milton, left, Curtis Belz and Phillip Gulley star in "The Chosen," a drama by Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok.

By KATHY L. GREENBERG

Tribune correspondent

Published: October 8, 2008

TAMPA - Tender and wise, "The Chosen," by Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok, explores the complicated relationship between fathers and sons. Stageworks' production beautifully captures the story's intense emotional and intellectual integrity.

The drama is based on Potok's 1967 bestselling novel about Reuven Malter, an Orthodox Jew, and Danny Saunders, a Hassidic Jew, both of whom live in the Williamsburg neighborhood of New York City, but are worlds apart in their religious differences. The Hassid generally choose not to associate with anyone outside the fold, deeming even Orthodox Jewry an anathema.

Nevertheless, in 1944 the teenagers form an unlikely bond over baseball and books. Theirs is much like a courtship, requiring their fathers' blessings to be together. Reb Saunders, a sage and spiritual leader of his community, and David Malter, a modern Talmudic scholar, surprise the boys with their consent.

At the end of World War II, the fathers set aside their religious convictions to mourn a people lost. Although the Holocaust emphasized the oneness of Jews, if not all of humanity, it also fueled Zionism, a movement supporting the establishment of a separate Jewish homeland in Palestine. Hassidism and Orthodoxy diverge, forging a rift between Danny and Reuven that only time can heal.

Phillip Gully (young Reuven) and David Warner (the elder Malter) conveyed genuine warmth, love and respect for one another. Gully, tall and gangly, was refreshing with his boyish enthusiasm, and Warner could not have been more authentic as a fervent Zionist and equally impassioned man of letters.

Most impressive was Bill Karnovsky's portrayal of Reb Saunders. He embodied a man righteous in his beliefs, joyful in his love of God and endearingly arrogant as a revered spiritual touchstone. What marked his performance as close to brilliant, however, were his heartbreaking interactions with stage son Curtis Belz. Potok's rabbi raised his child in silence to teach him empathy - a practice that also brought great sadness between the two. Karnovsky wore this grief like a shroud.