The New Jewish Theatre’s current offering is an outstanding production of “Trayf.” The play, by Lindsay Joelle, is an absorbing and moving study of a friendship in an insular environment. This bond is tested when one of the friends is drawn to the outside world.
The main characters are two Hasidic young men, Shmuel and Zalmy, who live in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. In early 1991, they have just taken command of a “mitzvah tank,” a recreational vehicle equipped by their Chabad community to fight assimilation.
The play opens as Shmuel and Zalmy are listening to one of their rebbe’s sermons on the mitzvah tank’s cassette player. They can barely contain their excitement as they gush about the rebbe’s tapes. The friends are both committed to the mitzvah tank’s mission of reigniting the Jewish spark in the souls of nonreligious Jews in New York City.
Zalmy, however, has developed an interest in the world outside their Hasidic community. When he boasts of an encounter with a pop star during a visit to California, Shmuel is indignant. He says he does everything he can to avoid listening to secular music.
“When you hear a song, the soul of the author is in the room,” Shmuel asserts. “I don’t want a goyishe songwriter should be entering my soul and trayfing up the place.”
The friends’ solidarity is further challenged when they encounter Jonathan. He was raised a Catholic, but he has just discovered that his late father was a Jewish Holocaust survivor.
Shmuel is suspicious of Jonathan because he hesitated when he was asked if he were Jewish. Jonathan is not halachically Jewish, Shmuel points out, because his mother was not a Jew. Zalmy believes Jonathan is serious when he says he want to convert to Judaism, but Zalmy has an ulterior motive for offering his help. Jonathan works in a music store, and he can satisfy Zalmy’s curiosity about popular music and other things that are trayf.
As Zalmy and Jonathan grow closer, Shmuel feels left out. So does Leah, Jonathan’s girlfriend, who is a secular Jew.
The NJT cast performs superbly under Aaron Sparks’ knowing direction.
The contrast and the connection are both extraordinary in the performances by Jacob Schmidt as Zalmy and Bryce Miller as Shmuel. A grin is seldom far from Zalmy’s lips. Shmuel often scowls. Zalmy’s clipped movements show how hard he struggles to control his enthusiasm. Shmuel’s posture reflects his uncompromising adherence to his rebbe’s teachings.
Miller and Schmidt have striking rapport when Shmuel and Zalmy are sharing joy, while their fighting reflects the heartache of people who still love each other in spite of their differences.
Spencer Sickmann fervently projects Jonathan’s thirst to explore his Jewishness and also captures the fulfillment Jonathan achieves from what he learns. Jonathan’s girlfriend, Leah, has only one scene, but Annie Zigman fully encompasses Leah’s arc as her initial diffidence turns into outraged indignation.
Lily Tomasic’s scenic design creates a large, deep space for the action in one corner of the theater. The seating is along the two facing walls. The depth of this arrangement is very useful for accommodating the play’s most important set piece, the mitzvah tank.
At NJT, the tank is tall, long and movable. It faces forward when the friends are driving and is rotated sideways for interactions on the street. The structure is skeletal and narrow, minimizing interference with sightlines. The wooden beams of the tank’s frame are echoed in the set’s background, which suggests the cityscape looming over the characters. An elevated space is provided for a rooftop scene.
The play’s environment is firmly established by the fine work in Michele Friedman Siler’s costumes, Kareem Deanes’ sound, Michael Sullivan’s lighting, and Katie Orr’s props.
NJT’s program includes a helpful glossary of terms used in the play, but the universal themes and insights of “Trayf” will shine through even if a few words are unfamiliar.
‘Trayf”
WHEN: Through Sept. 29
WHERE: New Jewish Theatre’s Wool Studio Theater in the Jewish Community Center’s Arts & Education Building, 2 Millstone Campus Dr.
HOW MUCH: $27 to $58
MORE INFO: Visit newjewishtheatre.org or call 314-442-3283
