The Name is Asher

Senior Editor Maria Hess dishes on the arts in Delaware.

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A Delaware Premiere

The Delaware Theatre Company presents “My Name is Asher Lev” thru February 28.

Philadelphia’s Aaron Posner first adapted “Asher” for the Arden Theater Company in January 2009, enjoying favorable reviews. The Philadelphia Inquirer called the show “exquisite,” while Talkin’ Broadway labeled it “a truly theatrical experience.”

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And it is. The adaptation of the tremendous novel by Chaim Potok tells the story of Asher, a prolific artist born into a Hasidic Jewish family in 1940s Brooklyn. He is struggling to reconcile his creative voice with the expectations of his conservative family and community.

“I admire the way this story explores what it means to become an artist,” says DTC artistic director Anne Marie Cammarato. “In addition, I love that it asks how responsibility to one’s family and faith can be reconciled with the discovery of self. Potok’s ability to tackle such huge questions, within such an intimate story, is part of what makes it translate so beautifully to the stage.”

Posner, a co-founder of the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia and currently the artistic director of Two River Theatre in New Jersey, is trying his luck a second time at the Delaware Theatre Company. The play premiered last weekend, but the snowstorm affected attendance.

According to an article on Playbill.com, Posner had wanted to stage “My Name Is Asher Lev” for almost a decade. “I respond deeply to stories and worlds Chaim weaves so beautifully in his novels,” he wrote.

The show contains brief nudity and adult subject matter. The DTC recommends this play for audiences ages 15 and up.

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Contact info: 594-1100, or delawaretheatre.org

 

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