KOSHER LUTHERANS

Theatre review by Mark Andrew Lawrence

A play about two couples getting together for drinks and arguments and facing issues of having children. Doesn’t it sound a little bit like Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Well, in the case of Kosher Lutherans, a comedy by William Missouri Davis, the basic situation is the same but this play is much lighter in tone and about half the length.

The dialogue in Kosher Lutherans is quite sharp and surprisingly funny, even if it does get a bit repetitive at times. The play is being offered as the first show of the season by Teatron in the studio theatre at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, and happily it comes across as breezy entertainment.

It helps that producer/director Ari Weisberg has assembled a cast who play the domestic scenes with a level of naturalness that accentuates the comedy without overplaying it. When the script gets more farcical in the final scenes, we are already invested with these characters making it easier to enjoy their antics.

Richard Hoffman and Ron Boyd are two longtime friends, Ben and Franklyn, and yes they constantly say they names together to reference the famous “first American.” Both men are dealing with troubled marriages and attempting to start families. Hoffman is the more aggressive of the two, constantly engaged in a battle one-upsmanship with Boyd who plays an aspiring writer who apparently lacks any without any natural talent.

The real contrast is established between the two wives: Melissa Battey-Pratt portrays a gentle sadness as the quieter Hanna while Jada Rifkin is the nosily braying Martha. (Again, note the Albee connection.)  The first act provides plenty of comic material for these four, but the second act introduces us to Veronika Brylinska as Alison, a young unwed mother with a vague disposition. She is planning to give up her child for adoption, and our key couple hopes to become the new parents.

The story takes a number of humorous twists, building to an extended scene in the second half as the two couples go to great lengths to conceal their religion from the birth mother. It is fun, but the level of writing often slips to the level of Fox network sitcom.

The play does not offer up the darker intentions of Albee’s searing drama, but it is a fun little show making its points subversively.  Thanks to a talented cast and brisk direction, it offers an enjoyable diversion for theatergoers of all ages and religions.

Kosher Lutherans continues to November 21 in the studio theatre at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge St.  For performance times and tickets visit www.teatrontheatre.com or call the box office at 416-733-0545.