My Name Is Asher Lev

“What do you do as a parent when a child has got an amazing gift in a particular area and you’re insecure about their future?”

That is actor John O’Hare’s summation of the major theme in My Name Is Asher Lev, the critically acclaimed off-Broadway play adapted for stage by Aaron Posner from the revered Chiam Potok’s 1972 novel.

O’Hare plays the title role, Asher Lev, a Hasidic Jew living in Brooklyn who from childhood has displayed prodigious artistic talent and feels helplessly in thrall to his creative instinct.  This meets with caustic disapproval from the conservative Jewish community and in particular from his father, whose religious fervour extends to dedicated servitude to the Rebbe. Asher’s mother is torn between love and support for her son and allegiance to her husband.

Although the setting is very specific, the themes, dynamics and politics are universal. The tension triangle involving father, mother and son might almost be a trope if not for the meticulous writing of Potok. O’Hare, a long time admirer, says of the writer: “He never gets caught up in domestic melodrama.”

The story is told not as a sequential narrative but rather a series of flashbacks. Lighting and sound cues help with time shifts but O’Hare believes “the audience also needs to do some work to fill in the details”. He added: “It’s an intellectual arc with quite sophisticated art philosophy, but it’s done in a palatable way.”

O’Hare feels affinity with Asher Lev because of his own artistic journey.  He was training to be a mechanical engineer but felt the irresistible pull to become an actor, something his engineer father could not understand.

“It was something I just HAD to do,” said O’Hare. And he has no regrets. (RB)

May 8–29, various show times. Eternity Playhouse, 39 Burton St, Darlinghurst. $34-$46. Tickets & info: encounters.edu.au

BY RITA BRATOVICH