Arkady Leokum's Enemies (Broadway Theatre Archive) Review

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(More customer reviews)Enemies is a wonderful two character, one-act, 45 minute play from the Kultur Broadway Theatre Archives. The setting is a small restaurant in the Catskills, 1971. The two characters, well into their senior years have encountered one another for five years. Gittleman (Sam Jaffe) is a waiter who has to put up with the demanding, harsh and critical insults of customer Miller (Ned Glass), who makes his frequent visit, as he puts it, to eat before the riff raff comes in.
For five years, Miller criticizes the food, the hygiene, the coffee, the menu, the establishment and the final blow is to refer to Gittleman as a lowly waiter who Miller has had to train! Clearly Gittleman and Miller are not friends. Miller is a widowed man has merely enjoyed the pleasures of life that "discount hours" have brought him, clearly a lonely and less expensive existence. But he flaunts a different lifestyle filled with success and happiness. Gittleman is a hard-working family man.
It is the turn of events that makes this play a gem! The two veteran actors have starred in television and movies for years. Ned Glass is known also for his nasal voice while Sam Jaffe for his wild white hair. The two actors both died in 1984. Arkady Leokum is popular for his Tell Me Why: Answers to Hundreds of Questions Children Ask. If you care to see another great play by him, try Neighbors (Broadway Theatre Archive) ....Rizzo


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Arkady Leokum's short humorous play is based on theauthor's experience as a waiter at a Catskills resort. Sam Jaffe stas as a long-suffering waiter who finally turns the tables on an intolerable regular customer (Ned Glass).

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Zalmen or the Madness of God (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1975) Review

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(More customer reviews)Most familiar with the works of Elie Wiesel will think of his memorable semi-autobiographical novels, his two-volume memoir or his long and unflagging effort to bring the issue of human rights--not only Jewish human rights--before the eyes of the world. Here, we see a different Wiesel, even different than the man who stood up to Ronald Reagan when he urged him (unsuccessfully) not to visit Bitburg. it is not so much that his theme--the plight of oppressed Jews-- is unfamiliar. Rather, it is how it is revealed. Not only is it a play, and brilliantly cast, but, as some may remember from its appearance many years ago on PBS, it focuses us on post-World War II history, the struggle of Jews in freshly post-Stalinist Russia. Joseph Wiseman is the old Rabbi of the town who has nearly given up hope of ever seeing his people breath the brisk air of freedom, and, at the same time, grieving for his spiritually wayward daughter, while he and his neighbors and congregants alike cow-tow to the local officials who gently strong-arm them to behave and shut up. Richard Bauer, as the synagogue beadle, and crazy like a fox, tries to lift Wiseman out of his spiritual malaise and speak out. There is great humanity here, and--please--it is not just for a Jewish audience, much like, I would argue, is the case with most of the Wiesel canon. Watch this and be changed.

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Set in a post-Stalinist Russian synagogue on the eve of an appearance by a Western actring troupe, Elie Wiesel's play has been described as a cry of anguish about the collective guilt of"the Silent". Stars Dianne Wiest, Robert Prosky,Joseph Wiseman.

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Sea Marks (Broadway Theatre Archive) (1976) Review

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(More customer reviews)Colm Primrose, a fisherman from the wild coast of Ireland, loves his work, his boat, his fishing buddies, and the sea in all its moods. Living in a small, rural community, he has no telephone, no modern conveniences--and no wife. While at a local wedding, he sees Timothea, a young woman from Liverpool, to whom he eventually writes a letter. Their correspondence, in which he describes his life, continues for eighteen months, before she returns to the area for another wedding. Before long, she has persuaded him to visit her in Liverpool, where she works for a publisher.
Their relationship, the first ever for Colm, provides sweet romance, but the seeds of disaster are sown from the beginning, when Timothea has his letters published as "sonnets." Described by publicists as "primitive," the unschooled Colm finds himself, unexpectedly, a celebrity poet, in demand for talks to clubs. Like the proverbial fish out of water, however, Colm misses the sea and "the heads," while Timothea, who has escaped to Liverpool from rural Wales, wants never to live the primitive life again. Their love, which drives the first act of the play, becomes the conflict which drives the second act.
Gardner McKay has created a romantic drama which glorifies the life of the fisherman and his ties to the most basic elements of wind and weather. The visual contrast between the wild Irish coast in this filmed-for-television production and the seamy side of Liverpool illustrate the themes. The plot is simple--and predictable--but George Hearn manages to make Colm a real person experiencing real agonies as he tries to reconcile his first experience with love with his need to return to his roots. Veronica Castang, as the more experienced lover, plays her role with a lovely softness, which disguises her selfish side, seen in her refusal to consider leaving the city and her determination to persuade Colm to remain.
This Broadway Theatre Archive production from 1976, contains themes as relevant today as they were then--the desire for love, the need for openness to new experiences, and the beauties of the simple life vs. the city life. The attractions of a life as raw and primitive as Colm's may be less appealing today than they were in 1976, however, and the conflict is so basic that the conclusion is obvious from the beginning of the play. Still, Hearn makes Colm such an attractive character that one hopes that he will achieve happiness by finding both a lover and a continued life on the sea he loves. A well-acted romantic drama. n Mary Whipple


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