Reviewed By Eugene Paul

 

 

In the wide embrace of Theater, the chronicle play has held its coveted, premier position for centuries, despite sudden flashes of brilliance by other modes that grab the main light. Producer Andrew M. Horn and director Joe Brancato, in their prime, start their thirty-ninth season longer in the tooth, wiser in the head, with a particularly sagacious choice, The Immigrant, warm, humorous, touching, an early Penguin Theatre success from thirty years ago they see as more significant than ever.  They’re right.

 

 

Bill Phillips & Jasin Liebman                     photos by Dorice A. Madronero

 

 

It is the story of Haskell Garelik, young Russian Jew fleeing Czarist Russia in 1909, shrewdly entering the United States, not through the teeming crush of Ellis Island but 1500 miles away, through spare, open Galveston, Texas. He is alone.  Knowing no one. Speaking no English. Oh, yes, “Bananas! One Penny!” He has invested his last coin for a squeaking wheelbarrow and a clutch of dockside bananas also newly arrived. He has to earn his way.  No roof.  No bed. A half empty canteen of water.  The long, rough, open road leads to where he cannot take another step. It’s as far as he can go:  Hamilton, Texas, population 1206.  No Jews.

 

And if it hadn’t been for the warmth, kindness, but definitely the curiosity of sweet Ima Perry (simply charming Tina Johnson) who knows what would have happened to him.  Motherly Mrs. Perry sees a needy young man (remarkable Jason Liebman), filthy, hungry, thirsty, can’t speak proper American  at all, and does what she has to do, which includes wheedling her husband, Milton, bit of a stiff necked, stuffy, worry wart local banker (splendid Bill Phillips) into allowing young Haskell stranger  to use a corner of their barn for shelter.  For a price, of course. It’s the only way Milton would agree.  So Ima buys all Haskell’s bananas. Suddenly, he  can pay rent.  The bargaining scene between Haskell speaking Yiddish and Milton speaking reluctant Texan (there’s a heart of gold under that gruff and proper exterior) is one of the early highlights of the play.  Milton doesn’t know quite how it comes about that he takes young Haskell under his banker’s wing. A Jew?  What’s that? Just a curiosity in this part of the world. Ima and Milton Perry like this  endearingly brave young man.

 

 

Melissa Miller &  Jason Liebman

 

Grateful Haskell reciprocates their warmth, works harder, learns English.  It’s not enough.  He prays, alone; but  it’s not enough, to try to pray alone. He can work harder if he looks more American. And that’s not enough.  He needs his wife with him. As soon as he can, he sends for her, young Leah (tenderly charming Melissa Miller).  Who is so wretched in this dusty, little, bleak Texas town she wants to go back to the misery she knows in bleak, oppressive Russia. It takes the patient kindness of the Perrys and the arrival of babies, year after year with Milton and Ima firmly standing by these new Americans  right here, in Hamilton, Texas. Pop.: 1212. Six Jews.

 

And as Haskell grows in confidence and security, he chafes under the constant guidance of Milton, whose paternal hand feels heavier and heavier until the break erupts at what was supposed to be a  sentimental Seder  in Haskell and Leah’s home with Ima and Milton as happy, honored guests.  “I am not a case, I am a man!”, Haskell proclaims. As, of course, they all know.  The split with Milton, however, is devastating.

 

Playwright Mark Garelik’s warm, deeply touching story of his grandfather’s life in America has been mounted with the rich care it deserves under director Brancato’s empathic, sensitive guidance, its relevance to our lives today, clearly, delicately drawn. He is ably abetted by costume designer Patricia Doherty chronicling the years as they go by.  Brian Prather’s setting frames the key closeness of the Perry and Garelik families. Yes, there’s an emotional reconciliation. That’s what a good, chronicle play can do.  You have laughed, you’ve smiled, you have shed a tear, you’ve been taken on a journey. In skilled hands, a barn theatre can not only reflect on the world, it  be the world.

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The Immigrant. At the Penguin Rep Theatre, 7 Crickettown Road, Stony Point, NY 10980. Free parking. Air conditioned. Wheel chair accessible. Tickets: $43. 2 hrs. Thru June 12.