“Exagoge,” inspired by the oldest known Jewish play, is a wildly ambitious, complicated but largely accessible new work of immersive theater: a play, opera, and Passover seder all in one – and all in just 100 minutes, which (if you know seders) is itself an achievement. There is much else besides its comparative brevity to recommend this latest work by the reliably erudite Edward Einhorn and his Untitled Theater Company No. 61., which began at La MaMa in the middle of Passover and is running through May 12 (two weeks past the holiday.) The play, which is thought-provoking in itself, provides a modern frame both for the opera, which has moments of exquisite singing and vivid stagecraft, and for the seder, which is more or less for real, and fun, if unorthodox (thus, for some, possibly problematic.)
A Jewish dramatist named Ezekiel the Tragedian wrote the original “Exagoge” some 2,200 years ago in Alexandria, Egypt. Although only a fragment of Ezekial’s play remains (269 lines), that’s plenty enough for scholars to know it was a drama written in Greek about the exodus of the Jews from Egyptian bondage, influenced by the tragedies written several centuries earlier by Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles. It retells the story from the Exodus book of the Bible, but incorporates non-Biblical elements, such as a phoenix that rises up at the end – which some (such as Einhorn) speculate was Ezekiel’s effort (as Einhorn puts it in a note) “to reach out to the pagan community. We know that, historically, the Jews of Alexandria were surprisingly integrated into Alexandrian society” (which at the time was what we would now call multicultural.)
The story of the Exodus is also what’s told during the Jewish holiday of Passover, although “Exagoge” was probably performed several centuries before Jews began celebrating the story through a ritual meal.
Einhorn works all this into his play. A secular New York Jew named Zeke (Hershel Blatt) is working on an opera based on the ancient “Exagoge.” Zeke’s father Avraham (Maxwell Zener), a professor of Jewish history at Columbia, is holding a Passover seder to which Zeke is of course invited. Zeke arrives late, bringing Aliya (Meena Knowles.) Aliya is Zeke’s girlfriend and a Muslim. Avraham has never met her before; didn’t even know about her; and Zeke didn’t mention he was bringing anybody to the seder. This cleverly sets up a tension that is threaded throughout the seder that follows.
If you’re doing a seder correctly (at least in some Jewish households), you don’t just rotely follow the Haggadah (the text that sets forth the order of the seder) but stop to discuss and debate – the meaning, the themes, even the politics raised by the events. This is precisely what these three characters do, sometimes paralleling the tensions in the story. But they are not just responding to the Biblical story; they are also critiquing Zeke’s opera (which is actually composed by Avner Finberg with an English-language libretto by Einhorn), as it unfolds on the stage.
The opera, backed by a lovely six-piece orchestra, features three opera singers — James Rodgers as Moses, soprano Tharanga Goonetilleke (a standout) as Tzipporah, the Gentile woman who becomes Moses’ wife, and Matthew Curran as both Pharaoh and Tzipporah’s father Reuel.
The arias are enhanced by three puppeteers, who work the burning bush and the phoenix, among other delights.
Scenes from the opera alternate with the seder (or, more precisely, are part of the narrative of the seder.) Audience members can follow along with an original, beautifully illustrated Haggadah, which sets out the traditional prayers, explanations and instructions within the normal 15-part structure of a seder but also includes the lyrics to the opera. (There are also supertitles on stage.)
About two dozen audience members participate directly in the seder – sit at long tables around the stage, take turns reading passages from the Haggadah, drink the wine (or grape juice), and partake of the food items that are served as symbols of the story. This includes Haroset, the mixture of fruit and nuts (delicious at this seder!) that symbolize the mortar that the enslaved Jews used to construct buildings for the Egyptian pharoah.
And of course the Matzah, bread (which we see them bake) that is unleavened (made without yeast) because the Jews had to leave Egypt in a hurry, with no time to wait for bread to rise. Given the low ticket price, it would be unrealistic to expect anything approaching the usual Passover feast, but those two dozen theatergoers around the tables at least are served a theatrical suggestion of a meal, palatable hors d’oeuvres of gefilte fish and even a macaroon. The fifty or so other theatergoers – the ones in the regular seats — get nothing.
This meal deal started to carry for me a symbolic weight all its own. The show probably sounds more complicated in my description than it actually plays out, but I turned out to have some complicated feelings about it. How should I be reacting to a theatrical version of a sacred ritual (using some of the actual prayers) that, if you’re a Jew – even a secular one – you likely engage in annually to keep in touch with your identity and show your respect for your religion? It made me think of a famous advertising campaign from the 1960s from a (now defunct) Jewish bakery. You don’t have to be Jewish to love “Exagoge.” It might help not to be.
Exagoge
Untitled Theater Company # 61 at La MaMa through May 12
Running time: 100 minutes no intermission
Tickets: $35. Students/seniors $30
Music by Avner Finberg
Script, Libretto, & Direction by Edward Einhorn
Cast:Hershel Blatt as Zeke; Matthew Curran as Pharoah, Reuel, God; Tharanga Goonetilleke as Tzipporah, Messenger, God; Meena Knowles as Aliya; James Benjamin Rodgers as Moses; Maxwell Zener as Avraham, Rebecca Jay Caplan, Yanniv Frank and Parker Sera.
Orchestra: Mila Henry (Music Director/Pianist), Mariana Ramirez (Percussion), Sunny Sheu (Violin), Johnna Wu (Violin), Sara Dudley (Viola) and Paul Swensen (Cello).
Tom Lee and Grace Needlman (Set Design & related puppets),Evolve Puppets – Tanya Khordoc and Barry Weil (Puppet Design), Ramona Ponce,(Costume/Mask Design), Federico Restrepo (Light Design), Berit Johnson (Production StageManager), D Henry Hanson (ASM/Food coordinator), Eric Shanower (Art)
Photographs by Richard Termine
