Review: Of Art, Tradition, and the Search for Self: Portland Stage's MY NAME IS ASHER LEV

Portland Stage's latest production of Aaron Posner's 2014 adaptation of Chaim Potok's novel, My Name Is Asher Lev, is a touching account of a young Jewish man's quest to become an artist and to reconcile his vocation with the traditions and expectations of his Orthodox family and community. Portland Stage has produced the three-character work in a stylish ninety-minute production that moves with subtlety and restraint toward Asher Lev's coming of age as an artist and a son.

Posner's adaptation of Potok's first-person narrative is heavy on exposition, posing challenges to director Paul Mullins to keep the action flowing and the transitions smooth. The play is anchored by Lev, who grows from a small boy to an internationally successful painter in the course of the drama, and it is he who recounts the tale, moving in and out of narration and action. The two other characters portray the women and men in Lev's life: his mother, his art dealer, a model, his father, his uncle, and his mentor, the painter Jacob Kahn. Posner has finely tuned ear for dialogue that captures the complex, guilt-ridden, yet loving inter relationships of the family, and he convincingly probes Lev's conflicts between religion and personal rebellion, between tradition and self-expression, between love of family and the need to be true to himself and his vision. The final muted scenes in which his parents, uncomprehending of the Crucifixions he has exhibited, wordlessly leave the gallery and then wordlessly bid him goodbye have a hushed intensity that is its own resolution.

Paul Mullins keeps the pace quick enough to move seamlessly back and forth from Lev's monologues to the dramatic action. Brittany Vasta's attractive unit set - dominated by a large paned window (symbol of Lev's mother's eternal waiting and longing) flanked by two brick walls - effectively conjures up the family's Brooklyn apartment. Andrew Hungerford's lighting is warm and embracing and adds to the evenness of the transitions, while Lex Liang's costumes help the characters change roles with believable simplicity. Shannon Zura rounds out the ambiance with a suitable sound design.

In the title role of Asher Lev, Noah Averbach-Katz brings a combination of vulnerability and steely resolve, and he manages to add a touch of the poetic to his delivery of the longer expository monologues. Joel Leffert plays the men in Lev's life, capturing the contrasts well, and endowing especially Lev's father with a dignity and humanity that make him sympathetic, however much he cannot comprehend his son's passion for painting. His portrayal of the other father figure in Lev's life, painter Jacob Kahn, is achieved with mordent flair. Patricia Buckley successfully plays the female figures, bringing a combination of compassion and long-suffering sense of martyrdom to her portrayal of Asher Lev's mother.

Like Portland Stage's production of Red last season, My Name Is Asher Lev grapples with fascinating questions about the meaning of art, the definition of the artist's mission, and the religion of truth and beauty.

Photos courtesy of Portland Stage, Aaron Flacke, photographer.

MY NAME IS ASHER LEV runs from March 29 - April 17, 2016 at Portland Stage, 25 Forest Ave., Portland, ME www.portlandstage.org 207-774-0465

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