“In Every Generation”

 Recommended *** It’s Spring! Well, maybe not weather-wise, but by date, and with Spring, comes Easter and of course, Passover. Jews all over the world celebrate this holiday with the “Seder” a family dinner that goes along with the telling of the story of their escape from Egypt and slavery. Being Jewish, I am quite familiar with the holiday, the feats, The Four Questions, the songs and of course the last line of the Seder, “Next Year, Jerusalem!”. That is the dream of every Jew- to be in the Holy Land for this special festival.

I tell you these things because Victory gardens is ending the drought of theater ( due to Covid, of course) with the bursting out of Spring and the World Premiere of Ali Viterbi’s “In Every Generation” , a work that explores one family on the first night of Passover in several different times ( generations). The main theater has been redone and is now a stage with seating on two sides ( not round or arena style) but the backstage area now has seats and the stage area has been expanded. I am unsure as to if this was done for this play or if this is the new look for the future ( new direction with new Artistic Director), but for this particular production, sharply directed by Devon de Mayo. It worked well with this story.

The play is divided into two acts, but the second act has three different scenes and three different generations. Act One is longer as it is where we meet the characters of the three generations of the Levi-Katz family as they celebrate this holiday in 2019. We meet Valeria ( Eli Katz) and her two daughters, Yael (Esther Fishbein) and Dev ( Sarah Lo), and her parents, Davide ( Paul Dillon) and Paola ( Carmen Roman). During this scene we learn that Davide , the grandfather is not well and hardly speaks. Dev , who is adopted from China has become a caretaker for him and during the course of the dinner spends a great deal of time with him. I must say that Roman as the doting grandmother, Paola,  hits the nail on the head- the perfect Jewish grandmother ).

Anyone who has ever been to a Seder knows there is a lot of talk about life during the service and as the service goes on the dinner ( mostly grandma’s brisket) is served . At the conclusion of the meal, we sing a song, “Dayanu” and say the line,” Next year Jerusalem”! Of course, this is not going to happen, but it is a nice thought and a return to the promised land wouldn’t hurt. I am sure that there will be audience members who will not “get it”, but no matter who you are and what your beliefs are, you will learn a little more about traditions of other religions from this piece. Open your mind and your heart will follow!

The second act is back in time, 1955 and Davide and Paola are enjoying their first Passover together. They are much younger and very much in love. She hardly speaks English so they do offer subtitles on the screen above the stage with translations. They are not perfect and some lines are missed, so I guess for a regular performance they only do the lines that are meaningful to the play. I would have liked to know what she said in Italian, every time. They are younger and very much in love. They have just made it through World War II and are alive, not merely by chance. They are in love and as the Seder goes on, we can see that this holiday is binding for them and their love.

The second scene in Act Two is further into the future. The grandparents are now gone and their mother is sick. She cannot speak but can communicate on a tablet. Here the words are again projected on the screen above, but there were a few that we missed. It is now the two sisters and the mom at this Seder. Dev is now a Rabbi and is single ( as it turns out, she is a lesbian Rabbi)Yael is there but without her daughters and again the celebration is about tradition and what is happening in their lives, once again draws them away from the reason they are together. There is one more scene and one that I have opted to not tell you all about as it would spoil the beauty of what de Mayo and Viterbi bring to the stage. I will tell you that in this scene they might just be in Jerusalem ( or something that sure seems to be) and their pasts will come to make this a very special Passover.

Since I have experienced 77  Passovers ( that I was aware of) and will be doing so in a few weeks, I can tell you that the service can be long and tedious or short and festive. The youngest child must ask The Four Questions, starting with “Why is this night different from other nights” and this question seems to get an answer in this wonderful story. One of the questions that I had was in the final scene. The board had all of the translations in Hebrew and the cast spoke English. I think this may confuse many audience members.

On the tech side, the set (Lauren Nichols and Andrew Boyce) is simple and again if this is the new layout, wonderful, but maybe the sound system needs some adjustment as even with hearing aids in place, I had some problems with some of the actors. kClare McKellaston  (costumes ), Caitlin McCarthy (props), Heather Sparling (lights) and Yeaji Kim (projections)  all did great. As I said the sound was not as good as I am used to at Victory Gardens, but for the most part Jeffrey Levin did his part. It is the actors who sometimes forget to “play to the back row”.

“In Every Generation” will continue at Victory Gardens Theater located at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue thru May 1st with performances as follows:

Tuesday-Saturday  7:30 p.m. ( except April 12,16th and 19th)

Wednesday, April 20th  2 p.m.

Saturday, April 15th  3 p.m.

Sundays  3 p.m.

Tickets range from $29 and are available at the box office, by calling 773-871-3000 or online at www.victorygardens.org

ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCES:

Word for word ( open captioning) April 20th 2 p.m., April 22nd  7:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 23rd  7:30 p.m.

ASL Interpretation  Friday  April 22nd  7:30 p.m.

Audio Description/touch-tour Friday 4/22   7:30 p.m., Sunday, May 1st 3 p.m.  Touch Tour begins 90 minutes prior to play start.

Running time 2 hours 25 minutes

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click “In Every Generation”.

NOTE: I have been advised that the new stage area is for this particular production. To be honest, I liked the concept and the intimacy that goes with it.