'Miracle on South Division Street': A miraculous play in Jerusalem - review

Since 2016, the Theater and Theology company, under the creative direction of Yael Valier, has been bringing thought-provoking English-language theater productions to Jerusalem. The focus is on high-quality scripts that tackle pivotal religious issues and spark discussion – quite often, pushing the envelope. Each night ends with a post-performance discussion with a different speaker.

The latest play, fresh from its off-Broadway run, is Miracle on South Division Street by acclaimed playwright Tom Dudzick. I’ll avoid spoilers, though this will limit what I can say about some of the most interesting takeaways.

The play’s backdrop (under the production design of John Krug, who worked on and off Broadway for 40 years and is actually a “Rabbi Dr.”) is an impressively elaborate kitchen that includes cabinets, American food products, a fridge, and an oven – basically, everything including the kitchen sink. We meet the Nowak family of Polish origin: Clara (Andrea Katz) and her adult children Ruth (Devorah Jaffe); Jimmie (Mordechai Buxner); and Bev (Sarit Brown). They have gathered in the family home in a rundown neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.

No ordinary home is this; adjoining it is a 20-foot shrine to the Virgin Mary, commemorating a religious visitation experienced by Clara’s father in his barber shop in 1942. Despite the children’s reluctance, Clara insists that they continue telling passersby the well-worn miracle story. She views their role as a family chosen by God.

Complicated, clandestine loves

Meanwhile, Jimmie is secretly on the verge of proposing to a Jewish woman and wondering how to present this to his Catholic mother, while Bev has found love with an “almost priest,” who is coming to see the miraculous shrine tomorrow.

Ruth has a clandestine love life, too; but it is another secret she carries that will turn the family’s world upside down. An aspiring actress, she is planning a one-woman show revealing the real story behind the shrine, a story unknown to her family until this moment. This inconvenient truth will crack open the core of how they see themselves, both as a family and as individuals.

I, AND the Jerusalem audience around me, very much enjoyed this twist and its aftermath. While some wished the play had ended more ambiguously, I had the opposite reaction. I wanted to see much more of its effect on the Nowaks’ lives and choices, and felt I could watch a whole extra play dealing with the post-twist reality. We have a fascinating confrontation here between ingrained beliefs and narrative (the version of reality subscribed to) and an uncomfortable external truth, inviting new beliefs and new narratives. What the Nowaks undergo on stage has ramifications for our own lives, as the post-play discussion with Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber indicated.

As I said, I could only have wished for more time to explore all of this. This aside, Miracle on South Division Street was overall highly enjoyable, with excellent acting and stage choreography, and hilarious moments punctuating the gentle comedy.

To end on a philosophical note: The Nowaks view themselves as a “chosen family,” but the younger generation wants out of that story. This issue might be rather familiar to us Jews, too. Do we need to have been chosen to be who we really are? As Jimmie says near the end: “We weren’t chosen special by God. That’s ok, He’s still smiling on us.”

Indeed, young Jimmie – the most optimistic and sunny character of the four – has every reason to be happy. Because the title’s miracle has ultimately nothing to do with visitations; it lies in the opening of a new chapter for the family – and most marvelously of all, for him.■

• What: Miracle on South Division Street, a play set in Buffalo, New York
• Who: Theater and Theology. Director: Yael Valier. Writer: Tom Dudzick
• Where: Mikro Theatre (located in the Jerusalem Theatre)
• When: It ran Jan. 23-27 (sign up for announcements of a future run at theaterandtheology.com)
• Why: A comedy about deeply felt beliefs challenged and miracles of various kinds