If you’ve ever regarded on the household canine and puzzled what they’re considering, there’s a stage present that can have you ever coming home to hug your canine additional laborious. In “The Jewish Dog,” which runs by way of November 19 at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, a household’s canine is deserted after his household is arrested through the Holocaust.
A one-man present with an astonishing efficiency by Roy Abramsohn, it leads audiences by way of the expertise of Cyrus the canine, telling the story of the Holocaust from the canine’s perspective.
The tagline of the present is intelligent and telling: “Don’t miss this unexpected view of history — from only 20 inches above the ground.”
Yes, there’s a grown, grownup actor in a canine costume on stage. And no, it isn’t precisely a comedy. It’s intense. It’s unhappy. It earns each minute. Of course, Cyrus’ naivete and misunderstandings carry moments of levity to the viewers. Playing about 20 totally different characters, Abramsohn each inflicts and absorbs terror. At no level through the present is it complicated who Abramsohn is portraying in any given second. He performs an old German lady, he performs a young Ukranian lady, he performs Nazis, he performs Jews, and he even performs greater than only one canine. While his talking voice is a heavy Philadelphia accent, Abramsohn is adept at slipping from character to character.
Abramsohn explains that the play resonates with him attributable to his Jewish heritage and love for dogs.
“It’s very easy to get emotional in this show for me,” Abramsohn instructed the Journal. “Sometimes, you’re on a film set or something and they say, ‘in this scene you have to be emotional and there’s 20 people around.’ But for a dog story, it’s easy for me to get emotional. It doesn’t take much. And yeah, I did have dogs growing up.”
Without spoiling any specific scene, audiences will discover that even after Cyrus the canine is left with out a home, he nonetheless loves whoever loves him again.
“The Jewish Dog” was initially a 2007 bestselling guide by Asher Kravitz. It was tailored for the stage by Israeli playwright and director Yonatan Esterkin. Abramsohn expressed a number of occasions all through the interview his gratitude for Esterkin for casting him.
And though he’s performing in theaters nationwide, Abramsohn’s first dwell exhibits as Cyrus the canine have been in a yard through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Tom Dugan, from Dugan’s Backyard Playhouse, allowed me (for free) to do three shows in his backyard to get more experience and prepare for the show in Houston at the Holocaust Museum,” in January of 2023 to commemorate International Holocaust Day, Abramsohn stated. “Tom is the definition of the word ‘mensch.’ The word was created for guys like him.”
Not solely did his spouse Betsy and youngsters Benjamin and Madeline play a job in Abramsohn’s thoughts as he obtained into character(s), he additionally took cues from the household canine, a poodle-terrier combine named Charlie, whom he discovered roaming the Valley whereas driving his youngsters to highschool. In some ways, Charlie was unwittingly an ideal coach for Abramsohn all through the method of changing into Cyrus. Abramsohn took a second away from Charlie to discuss the expertise of enjoying Cyrus the canine on stage.
(The dialog has been edited for house and readability.)
JEWISH JOURNAL: As an actor, do you assume this present can be your legacy?
ROY ABRAMSOHN: I assumed it’ll give me extra exhibits to do within the coming years, as a result of I’m 62 and every part will get more durable. I’ve two children, they’re 22 and 20 and every part will get more durable as you get older — bodily and simply doing stuff and remembering traces. So I needed one thing within the subsequent 10 years that I can go do all around the nation. I need to do that.
JJ: Tell me concerning the audition and the way you ready.
RA: I taped an audition at my buddy’s home. It was a piece the place the canine is distributed to dwell with the closeted homosexual man and his spouse, who’s a Nazi-loving lady. It was the type of scene the place there’s plenty of characters directly. And I simply guess I’ve developed a expertise for doing these fast character adjustments. And that’s the toughest factor to do. When I obtained the half, I learn the present into my cellphone, all 38 single-space pages. I’d drive round doing errands in Los Angeles wherever I’d go. I wouldn’t get in my automotive with out going over that script web page by web page by web page. It took 4 or 5 months to actually get it down. In this present, in case you neglect a line, you may’t take a look at your scene associate and hope they prevent.
JJ: What’s one thing you discovered concerning the historical past of the Holocaust by doing this present?
RA: I didn’t know that dogs have been taken from their Jewish homeowners in Nazi Germany. Or in a way, studying this a part of the Nuremberg legal guidelines. The Jews needed to give away all their dogs. First they took their weapons. Then they took their dogs.
JJ: What stunned you most about viewers reactions to the present?
RA: I used to be stunned on the laughter. The first time I did it, I assumed, ‘wow, there’s plenty of laughs on this, and I’ve made it enjoyable.’ I evaluate this present to the guide “Maus” in a approach the place it’s one other option to see the Holocaust that’s not so tragic and painful that you just’re listening to a human being speak about the abuse they endured. You’re listening to a canine speak about it. So it removes you from the horror and ache only a bit.
The Jewish Dog is enjoying at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts by way of November 19. For tickets: https://thewallis.org/show-details/the-jewish-dog
