Haunted

 

At Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre (Jewish Community Centre) until March 3
604-257-5145/chutzpahfestival.com or ticketstonight.ca

Posted on March 1, 2013

I don’t believe in ghosts but if someone else wants to, go ahead. So when young artist Sarah, whose abortionist father died of a heart attack a year ago, says she is being “visited” by him, what’s the problem? Her father’s darling, Sarah hasn’t been able to paint since he died. But once his visitations began, she got happy and started painting again.

Her lesbian partner Raina figures Sarah needs to see a shrink and get herself medicated. And Sarah’s mother Abby, still grieving after a year (and more about that later), is all out of joint about the whole ghost thing. It’s as if seeing a shade is the end of the world. Most mothers only want to see their children happy and Sarah is happy.

Abby has begun regularly attending schul at the local synagogue, not because she’s suddenly rediscovering her Jewish roots but because she has the hots for the rabbi (or as Sarah calls him witheringly, “the rabbit”). Abby pursues him like a whippet after a bunny.

Haunted feels like a play written by a young man and it is. Daniel Karasik has accomplished a lot and won various prizes including the Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition and the CBC Literary Award for Fiction. But he’s still only twenty-six and it would be amazing if he could really get under the skin of a smart and sexy widow in her fifties.

Kerry Sandomirsky is Abby and she’s smart, sexy and beautiful in the chic-est looking widow’s weeds ever (thanks to costume designer Sydney Cavanagh – although there are times when a little too much thigh is flashed. They are pretty thighs but it raises the possibility of “wardrobe malfunction” and seeing a bit more than we want to see.) Director Katrina Dunn’s decision to cast Sandomirsky is right on, though: Sandomirsky can say “Pass the salt” and it sounds motherly, compassionate, funny and the sexiest come-on ever – all at the same time.

But here is one example of the playwright’s youth – and maybe gender: Abby is still, apparently, grieving but is also still furious about her husband’s “dalliances and lies”. Seems he wasn’t perfect and it’s a long time to grieve for a philanderer who’s given you a lot of grief. There’s something here that just doesn’t ring true.

Patrick Sabongui is David, the handsome, nervous, young, orthodox rabbi on the receiving end of Abby’s enthusiastic advances. He maintains a stiff body, straight-armed stance fending off the merry widow. But David’s extreme reserve is suspect when we later learn about his history. He hasn’t always been a saint. And if he’s now made of stone, why is Abby so turned on by him? Is it the challenge? Or is she just horny?

Carmel Amit is high-strung, petulant Sarah and Kayla Deorksen is Raina. Once again, it’s hard to figure out why Raina reacts so strongly to Sarah’s confession about being visited by her dead father. It’s not as if his ghost is in the bedroom when they’re making love.

Despite Pam Johnson’s beautiful white-on-white set with a series of tall, arching, opaque screens, Adrian Muir’s cool and dappled lighting, Tim Matheson’s ghostly projections and Jeff McMahan’s lush sound design, I just couldn’t buy into young Karasik’s script – until the very last moment. A Touchstone Theatre production and part of the 2013 Chutzpah! Festival, Haunted’s last moment is heart-wrenching and the suspect emotions do, to some extent, come into sync as mother and daughter finally express their grief. Karasik definitely gets that right.