Next Year In Jerusalem - Elyse Mirto and Jake Robards

Halloween is a fun time to dress up and party, but this year I am doing something WAY cooler: I’m doing what I adore, which is seeing theatre. And what makes this so special is that I am catching the final performance of Next Year In Jersusalem by award-winning playwright Dana Leslie Goldstein.

One of the things that makes me super happy about it? It’s starring Elyse Mirto, who won the award for 2009 Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role at the New York Innovative Theatre Awards this year for her role in Any Day Now (and it was one of my favorite shows of the year – I loved her performance), and deals with how a family’s heritage and one man’s life’s struggles for a better future for his daughters can sometimes be so difficult emotionally for everyone.

Elyse Mirto and Jake Robards as Abraham and Anna Mendel

From the description:

As a young man, Abraham Mendel escaped Nazi occupied Poland and fled to Palestine, where he fought for Israeli independence, before immigrating to America to appease his pregnant wife. Now approaching retirement, Abraham wishes to leave his legacy to his two grown daughters. He offers security to his eldest, Rachel, by bestowing his successful contracting business on the loyal husband he chose for her. He also has a suitor in mind for his youngest, Faustine, an East Village bohemian with whom he is in constant conflict. As neither understands the sacrifices he has made for them, the tight grip Abraham has always exerted is shaken over Passover dinner, when his secrets and regrets become family knowledge.

I think about my father, whose family is descended from Puerto Rico and Spain, and the sacrifices they made for him…and the stories he tells me. This is about a Jewish family and life choices they make – but I think any well-told story about family sacrifices and if those sacrifices:

Although it’s nearing the end of its run, I am thrilled to be seeing it – I have a feeling that I will walk out of there having learned something … and with a cast like this, I’m like a kid two days before Christmas waiting for Santa.

Oh, wait; it’s October. Okay – the Great Pumpkin, then!

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