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by Jason Sherman, directed by Richard Rose

Tarragon Theatre, Tarragon Theatre Mainspace, Toronto

September 23-October 26, 2003

Jason Sherman's latest play is a surprisingly straightforward adaptation of the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers.  Shifting the setting from Israel and Egypt to Poland and Canada before and during World War II allows Sherman to examine the many guises of anti-Semitism from pogroms and Nazism in the Old World to Canada's unwillingness to accept Jewish refugees though knowing the fate they would face at home. 

In this version Joseph's envious brothers forcibly ship him to Canada, where, through concealing his Jewish identity, he eventually rises to become an advisor to Mackenzie King.  King gives him the task of turning back a boatload of refugees, his own brothers among them.  Sherman has ingeniously found mid-20th-century equivalents for even the minutest details of the story.  Yet, in condensing its 30 years to 2 1/2 hours of stage time, Sherman allows the narrative to drive the action, not the characters.  Worse, Sherman denies Joseph soliloquies, confidants, even outbursts.  What stresses does Joseph feel in suppressing his identity, in working for anti-Semitic officials, in refusing his own brothers entry?  We never learn what we most want to know

Within these restrictions Dmitry Chepovetsky does his best through expression and gesture to communicate Joseph's state of mind.  The uniformly strong cast includes Alex Poch-Goldin, outstanding as Joseph's hate-filled brother Judah, and Jerry Franken, chilling as a father who divides his sons into favourites and slaves.  Director Richard Rose and set and lighting designer Graeme Thomson have staged the show with brilliant simplicity, using only light and rearranged suitcases and trunks to represent the many locations. 

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2003-10-02.

Photo: Alon Nashman, Victor Ertmanis and Dmitri Chepovetsky. ©2003 Tarragon Theatre.