Awake and Sing!
by Clifford Odets
directed by Stephen Brown-Fried
The Public Theatre
July 8, 2015
Production website     💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

Here’s a crazy idea! Let’s take the American classic Awake and Sing!, written by Clifford Odets, that tells the story of three generations of an immigrant Jewish family struggling with economic, political and familial issues – – and let’s take this oh-so-Jewish story and cast it with an all Asian cast. Crazy, huh? That is exactly what the Public Theatre did with the combination of Awake and Sing! and the National Asian American Theatre Company!

And it worked! Oh boy did it work!

The minute these Asian actors came out on stage and opened their mouth and fully embraced the Jewish idioms and rhythms of speech – – I thought we were going to be in either a daring ridicule of these Jewish stereotypes or it was just going to be crazy bad. But alas it was just magic! After I got over the urge to find a flaw with this Jewish dialogue coming out of Asian faces – – I found the magic. What was happening for me was that I was able to hear and appreciate these archetypal, realistic Jewish characters as if for the first time. In the hands of a gifted Jewish cast, I was able to dismiss all of their mannerism, wit and strength and tell myself – “oh, I have seen this hundreds times in the theatre” – – but with this Asian cast, the Jewish mother, for example, was an entirely new character for me. I was listening to the wit, wisdom, love and cruelty for the very first time. I laughed as if for the first time at all of the artful shame being dished out to the children. I felt, for the first time, how much strength lies behind this Jewish mother as she keeps her family intact through thick and thin.

And it was not just the mother that was new to me. The grandfather wanting to make sense of this postwar America and all of its flaws. The young daughter struggling to find love and yet work in her most limited circle of possibilities. And of course the Jewish son trying so hard to define himself and make a life somehow away from his family that will give him meaning and pride. I had never seen these characters or experienced these struggles on the stage – – or at least that’s the way that I felt!

The other side effect of this masterful production is how it rekindled my respect for good ol’ American realism. Uppity theatre aficionado, that I like to believe of myself, had long ago wearied of realism. Realism is dead! Realism has no place on the stage. Give me a play done backwards, standing on a roof, wearing animal costumes. Now that’s a play worth calling art. But here with Awake and Sing! I got back to the magic of realism. Sitting in a small blackbox of barely one hundred people, I became part of that family. I was with them. They invited me in. They wanted me there. And even more surprisingly all tricks of realistic theatre: the surprise reveals, the mysterious suicide note, the unanswered ringing phone – – each and everyone of them – – oh so predictably placed – – simply caught me off guard. My chin was dropping with each one. Wasn’t I smart enough to see the set up of these plot devices. Didn’t I see where this relationship was going to end up? No and No! It was as if I had never seen a play before and knew nothing of the journey or the destination of the plot.

Loved it! If only this talented acting company would tackle Waiting for Lefty, Golden Boy, Brighton Beach, or anything by Neil Simon or or or. I would love to see these plays again for the first time.If only this play could have lasted longer – – and then become collection – – and then become an entire season.