Past Reviews

Regional Reviews: St. Louis

Trayf
The New Jewish Theatre
Review by Richard T. Green

Also see Richard's reviews of American Idiot and Blues in the Night


Spencer Sickmann, Jacob Schmidt,
and Bryce A. Miller


Photo by Jon Gitchoff
Maybe everyone's had a very close childhood friendship that somehow went off the rails. And what if we're supposed to go through that? Maybe we treasure all the subsequent relationships more highly, after losing a great one at an early age. In Lindsay Joelle's 2017 play Trayf, an outsider comes along and "ruins" everything for two childhood friends, Hassidic teenagers trying to evangelize New York Jews in 1991. The 95-minute show (without intermission) is funny, very beautifully acted, and highly endearing under the direction of Aaron Sparks at the New Jewish Theatre in St. Louis.

Trayf was first developed and debuted at the Penguin Repertory Theatre in Stony Point, New York. And in the New Jewish Theatre staging, actors Jacob Schmidt and Bryce A. Miller are coaxed and nurtured into great, effervescent performances as Zalmy and Schmuel, driving a truck around Brooklyn and Manhattan and bursting with excitement over a chance to try out their zealotry on the streets. It's a bit like Book of Mormon in that sense. But any delightful music is heard only in the souls of these two delirious kids. And in our own heads, as well.

The boys encounter a clerk from a record store, Jonathan, who's just lost his father, and found a birth certificate suggesting his dad was Jewish. The dazzlingly wise Spencer Sickmann plays their eager novitiate, in a turn that's full of maze-like moments: at one point I thought he might be the messiah; at another point, the devil. And in his mourning, he tries to vacuum up everything about his father's religion until it becomes an all-consuming passion.

It's like the greatest Jewish fable you never knew existed, till now. Jacob Schmidt is ingeniously detailed as the giggling Zalmy, Jonathan's guide–though he seems permanently changed putting his new student on a path toward a spiritual home.

Bryce A. Miller is Schmuel, wildly enthusiastic as the young man who drives the evangelical truck, with Zalmy by his side, delightful talking about exploring a future marriage and family life, but anguished as his life-long friend becomes a stranger. Annie Zigman is great in an all-too-brief scene as Jonathan's girlfriend, likewise feeling adrift as Zalmy and Jonathan's identities merge together. But then we hit a tipping point, and it seems like the whole world's gone mad, as Jonathan becomes more like Zalmy, and vice-versa.

The very fine set is by Lily Tomasic, with perfect costumes by Michele Friedman Siler and laser-sharp sound design by Kareem Deanes.

Trayf comes at you in unexpected ways, making you gradually and comically fear even the most harmless forms of "carnality." In a recent review here, I made a predictable remark about how Jewish theatre often seems like a struggle between modernity and tradition, with modernity finding its way out from under thousands of years of stifling rules and reasons.

But in Trayf, playwright Joelle flips Jewish theatre on its head–to where a joyous thread of antiquity, a tzitzit on the hem, gleefully struggles to grow out from under the fashion of the day.

Trayf runs through September 29, 2024, at the Jewish Community Center, #2 Millstone Campus Drive, St. Louis MO. During construction on the usual front entryway, follow the signs along Scheutz Rd. to the western-most entrance and then up to the northwest parking lot. For tickets and information, please visit www.newjewishtheatre.org.

Cast:
Schmuel: Bryce A. Miller
Zalmy: Jacob Schmidt
Jonathan: Spencer Sickmann*
Leah: Annie Zigman

Production Staff:
Director: Aaron Sparks
Scenic Designer: Lily Tomasic
Stage Manager: Patrick Siler*
Costume Designer: Michele Friedman Siler
Sound Designer: Kareem Deanes
Assistant Stage Manager: Emma Glose

Additional Production Staff:
Wardrobe Supervisor: Abby Pastorello
Props Supervisor: Katie Orr
Paint Charge: Cameron Tesson
Master Electrician: Tony Anselmo
Board Operator: Sabria Bender

Artistic Director: Rebekah Scallet
Technical Director: Laura Skroska
Production Manager: Sean Seifert
Assistant Technical Director: Patrice Nelms
Box Office & Guest Services Coordinator: Emily Strunk
House Manager: Laura Newman

* Denotes Member, Actors' Equity Association

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