"The Last Yiddish Speaker" at Six Points Theater

The new play The Last Yiddish Speaker by Deborah Zoe Lauer had a rolling world premiere just last year, and now Six Points Theater is bringing us the regional premiere. And I'm so glad they are because it's an urgent, necessary play. It feels like a warning call, like a very possible look into our future if this country, this world, keeps going in the direction it's going. The direction of fear, hate, otherism, nationalism, and division. The play is brilliantly written and expertly executed by the cast and creative team at Six Points, for a gripping 90+ minutes that's unsettling and disturbing and eerily familiar. Go see The Last Yiddish Speaker, a prime example of art holding up a mirror to the world, playing at Highland Park Community Center through November 9.

The play opens on what appears to be a normal American family scene, a father and daughter returning home from a trip to grocery store arguing about her plans for the future. It's a nice house, they're wearing nice clothes, and everything seems normal and pleasant. Until you start to notice the Christian iconography crowding the walls, and dad asks daughter to clean her gun, and you realize something is very wrong here. This is clarified when the neighbor boy comes over, wearing a gun on his hip, to "inspect" the house, albeit in a very friendly way. We learn that dad Paul and daughter Sarah (who goes by Mary, perhaps the most Christian name there is) have moved to this small town in upstate New York less than a year ago, which is why they're still under inspection. Neighbor John (who is dating Sarah/Mary) is looking for contraband in this near future dystopian society, where it's illegal to be Jewish, or gay, or anything but White and Christian, or a woman in college or with a career. But John doesn't know that Paul and Sarah are Jewish, and have escaped here from NYC with the help of "the resistance," and Sarah's mother is... gone. The tenuous situation reaches a pivotal point when an old Jewish woman (like really old, like a thousand years old) referred to as Aunt Chava is dropped off on their doorstop, with a note that it's "their turn" to hide her. Paul wants to turn her in, but Sarah insists that they help her, and starts to learn Yiddish and Jewish traditions from her. The situation cannot continue as it is, and everyone has a choice to make.

Aunt Chava (Sally Wingert) is delivered to Sarah (Charleigh Wolf)
and Paul's (Avi Aharoni) home (photo by Sarah Whiting)

Amy Rummenie directs the play in her Six Points debut, and does a beautiful job with it. Perhaps the scariest thing about this play is how normal everything looks on the surface, with a darkness hiding just beneath, and Amy captures that perfectly. I also appreciate the gentle scene transitions; when the dialogue of a scene ends, the lights dim, but one or two characters continue the scene wordlessly, continue the emotions, as one scene flows into the next. 

The four-person cast is consistently strong and works well together. #TCTheater veteran Sally Wingert plays Chava, and truly embodies that feeling of a thousand years of history on her shoulders. Speaking a mix of Yiddish and accented English, she's tough and endearing. Avi Aharoni returns home to play Paul, between earning his MFA from Northwestern and moving to NYC. He's wonderful as always (even if he is a bit young to play the father of a teenager), portraying all the layers of this conflicted man who will do anything to ensure the safety of his daughter, even deny himself. A couple of "BFA kids" play the teenagers, so great as all actors who come out of the Guthrie/U of M BFA program are. Carter Graham is so sweet and wholesome as John, a good kid who is smart and curious and open, but he's been carefully taught and believes what he's been told is right and good. Last but not least, in fact sort of the character on whom the whole story hinges, Charleigh Wolf is a young powerhouse as Sarah, a typically fierce and independent teenager, but one who's dealing with much more dire issues than any teenager should.

just two kids on prom night (Charleigh Wolf and Carter Graham)
(photo by Sarah Whiting)

The elaborate and detailed set built in the auditorium of Highland Park Community Center looks like a house solid enough to withstand any storm, complete with wood floors, functional stairs up to an unseen second story, windows, doors, even an outdoor patio space. The walls are crowded with pictures of Jesus, Mary, and other Christian images, the detailed kitchen includes food that is prepared and eaten. The soft light of morning shines through windows, and darkness descends at night. The sound design is scarily realistic, as mysterious gunshots are periodically heard. Characters are dressed in casual everyday clothes that bely the chaos they're living, including sweet prom wear for the kids. (Scenic design by Michael Hoover, props design by Bobby Smith, lighting design by Todd M. Reemtsma, sound design by Anita Kelling, costume design by Annie Cady and Anna Rubey.)

This play is so effective in its message and so emotionally affecting. In these post-apocalyptic kinds of shows, people are usually dirty and scruffy, their lodging rundown, maybe they don't have enough food. But here, everything is clean and pretty and looks just like our world, which is why it's so scary. The Last Yiddish speaker is one playwright's imagining of what our lives would have been like if the January 6 insurrection had succeeded, or could be if the next one does. If we don't heed this warning.