Milwaukee Rep ‘The Chosen’
Cultural, social and personal differences are what drive people apart, but it’s our common humanity that brings us together. This familiar duality lies at the heart of Chaim Potok’s novel The Chosen. It’s also the driving force behind the upcoming Milwaukee Rep stage version, adapted by the author and Rep director Aaron Posner, opening March 5.
“This is a story of friendship and a coming-of-age story about two remarkable young men and their relationship with their fathers,” says Posner. “They struggle within their own souls to find their best personal expression in this complicated dynamic.”
Set in 1940s Brooklyn, The Chosen tells the story of Reuven Malter (Eli Mayer) and Danny Saunders (Hillel Rosenshine), two teens who meet and bond over baseball. Dannys father Reb Malter (Ron Orbach) is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, while Reuven’s father David Malter (Steve Routman) is more moderate and a Zionist at a time when that political stance put its believers at odds with the more traditional Hasidim. The brilliant sons’ differing goals and the fathers’ differing views drive the play’s emotional dynamic.
“What I love about the play is that it’s a very moving story about how you find your way in the world despite the powerful forces that affect you,” says Posner, who was born in Madison and now teaches at the American University in Washington, D.C. “It’s a story that is wonderfully human.”
Emotional Intimacy
Photo courtesy Milwaukee Repertory Theater
Milwaukee Rep ‘The Chosen’
Hillel Rosenshine and Eli Mayer in rehearsal for the Milwaukee Rep's ‘The Chosen’
The current adaptation by Potok and Posner boils a larger-scale scenario down to just the four main characters, which also gives it an emotional intimacy that reaches beyond elements of time, place and faith to its humanity and the universal struggle between fathers and sons, Posner says.
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“Father-and-son relationships are famously complicated,” Posner says. “Men are less emotionally communicative, straining those relationships in a variety of ways. Love can be expressed with many ways, and that is something worth contemplating. It would be nice if love could always be offered in the way we wanted it to be, but that’s not always true,” he adds.
The story also strikes a personal chord for Posner. “This story is not my story, but I am the son of a very intelligent Jewish father it absolutely resonates with me,” he explains. “I dedicated the play to my parents, and with the birth of my daughter some years ago, I now am both a father and a son.”
The Chosen also is a play about faith set in a specific time period, but audience members do not have to be Jewish or familiar with Jewish culture of 1940s New York to appreciate both the drama and its message,” Posner adds.
“There are ways of living with contradictions that can be more helpful,” he explains. “In a world that’s polarized, this play seeks to challenge us to be bigger, to connect more widely and with love. Chaim talks about doing things that are ‘worthwhile,’ and we both have invested a lot of time and effort in this project and its meaning. This story and this play is ‘worthwhile.’”
The Milwaukee Rep’s production of Chaim Potok’s ‘The Chosen’ runs March 5-31 in the Quadracci Powerhouse in the Associated Bank Theater Center, 108 E. Wells St. For more information and tickets visit milwaukeerep.com. The production is presented by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
