We can talk all we want about higher forms of behavior, of ethics and altruism and good things like that. But when it comes to survival, all that stuff is forgotten, and we revert to basic savagery, to the worst parts of ourselves. It’s all about “me,” and it isn’t pretty, and even a sugary story like “The Immigrant,” can founder on it.
Mark Harelik’s play, based on stories of his Texas forebears, who fled Russia’s czars and pogroms, and wound up in Texas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, strikes a lot of familiar chords with audiences, as it did when it opened at the New Jewish Theatre last night.
Robert Thibaut is outstanding as Haskell Harelick, the author and a man who came from Russia, had no English and less money. As one of some 10,000 Russian and Polish Jews who were settled in smaller cities through the south for several reasons, like lessening the impact of Jews who came to New York and became a factor in the labor and the labor-organizing market. Harelick was fortunate. He was aided by the banker of little Hamilton, Tex., and both profited from the relationship.
The always excellent Gary Wayne Barker plays the crochety Milton Perry to perfection. He’s already a renegade, shown by his constant refusal to attend church, so his action in befriending Harelick is not as revolutionary as it could be, though his wife, Ina (Pegy Billo, splendid in every respect), has a major role in keeping the relationship with the Harelicks alive. Her interaction with Michelle Hand, as Leah Harelick, is exciting. Hand, who doesn’t enter the action until relatively late, has a lot of catching-up to do, and it takes her a few minutes to start, but she rapidly gets into the rhythm of the piece. Eventually, the play is as much about the women as it is about the men, and Harelick does not short them at all.
And, as noted earlier, when it comes down to survival, we are right there among the down and dirty, and in the days before World War II, we see Perry as a card-carrying member of America First, a right-wing isolationist group that later flocked to the John Birch Society on their way to the Tea Party.
Edward Coffield directs with patience and calm, and uses slides showing small-town Texas in the early days of the 20th century. They help set the scene and keep the focus because the small semi-thrust stage can’t quite do it. Josh Smith designed set and lights, Michele Siler the costumes and Josh Limpert the sound.
There are many good, warm, human moments along the way, even if “The Immigrant” wanders on the edge of sentimental foolishness too often.
The Immigrant opened at the New Jewish Theatre at the Jewish Community Center last night and will run through June 19.
—Joe
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Thanks, Joe. Because of your critique, I look forward to attending. Sorry I had to miss opening night. Doris G.L.