THEATRE REVIEW: YICHUD (SECLUSION)
12 Feb'10

‘Yichud’ a funny family affair

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

At its most basic level, it could be compared to Tony ’n’ Tina’s Wedding — but without the food.

But YICHUD (SECLUSION) emerges as more than a sustained and loving ethnic joke — although playwright Julie Tepperman and director Aaron Willis could be accused, on occasion, of venturing a little too far into T ’n’ T territory.

After a colourful and occasionally troubled voyage, YICHUD (SECLUSION), which began as a single 20-minute scene, finally reached the Theatre Passe Muraille mainstage Wednesday, produced by TPM in association with Convergence Theatre.

In honour of the production — and to heighten the experience it offers — the entire theatre has been transformed into a place of worship for Orthodox Jews — an ersatz synagogue where, even though the “congregants” intermingle regardless of sex, the “members” cleave to the ancient law of Yichud, or separation, which forbids the intermingling of the sexes in daily life. We are gathered together — or at least brought to the same building, it seems — for the wedding of Rachel Blitzer (played by Tepperman) and Chaim Berman (played by Willis). Theirs is an affair arranged after only a few heavily chaperoned dates that leave the bride and groom virtual strangers.

As the play begins, the bride and her mother, Malka (played by Diane Flacks), greet the female guests. In another room, the groom and his brothers — Menachem (played by Michael Rubenfeld) and Ephraim (Jordan Pettle) — party with Rachel’s father Mordechai (Richard Greenblatt) and the menfolk. Even the air dances, it seems, to the relentless beat of Klezmer and other traditional music, served up under the musical direction of Aviva Chernick.

The main business of the day is the wedding that will unite the two young people — and lead them inevitably to the Yichud Room, where Orthodox Jews traditionally spend the first few moments of marital intimacy, and where Tepperman chooses to end her story. But the deft hand of designer Beth Kates takes us behind the scenes for more intimate moments that allow the characters to become more human, and serve to pull the audience into the family circle of the event.

Through confrontations between Rachel and Malka, Malka and Mordechai and Menachem and Ephraim, Tepperman puts Orthodoxy under a microscope to show us the challenges inherent in living a righteous life in a secular world, where lines seem to be drawn only to be crossed. Just where do homosexuality, feminism, Facebook, oral sex and even thongs fit into an Orthodox world? And where does the Orthodox world fit into the larger world?

Taken individually, some of the asides certainly are more effective than others at exploring both what unites this community with a broader world, and what separates us from it as well. Not surprisingly, considering their backgrounds, Flacks and Greenblatt (who also served as dramaturge and consulting director on the project) go into full sitcom mode here, doing their utmost to turn it into an episode of Little Yeshiva on the Prairie, coming perilously close to derailing things in the process. Meanwhile, Tepperman and Willis — while largely convincing — bring an awkwardness to their performances that seems to be rooted in the performers as much as in the performances.

The feuding fraternals, Pettle and Rubenfeld, are letter perfect — and hence deeply affecting in a way that leaves one wishing that the rest of the cast had found its way into the zone that these two actors inhabit.

Happily, it’s all done with so much affection that, even though the ghosts of Tony ’n’ Tina make a few too many guest appearances in the course of the evening, one can’t help but wish Rachel and Chaim a heartfelt mazel tov!

At Theatre Passe Muraille
Directed by Aaron Willis
Starring the ensemble