Memory

Memory“How do you hold onto these moments, these feelings?” a youth asks, when frolicking with friends at night. The answer, according to the play currently playing at the 59E59 Theatre, is that you can’t.Sure, you remember things. But how do you know that those memories are real? That they are correct? And that they do your life justice? Those are the answers being presented by the company, a troupe of extremely talented British players, gracing us Americans with their talent from overseas.The play is Memory, written by Jonathon Lichtenstein and it is a play within a play, with a group of actors rehearsing two separate stories that are tied together by the theme of memory. In one, Peter (Lee Haven-Jones) visits his grandmother in Berlin, during the fall of the Berlin Wall, to hear the story of her survival during the Holocaust. It is family legend that she threw her body over the body of two young boys she was caring for to protect them from gunshots and saved their lives with her heroic act. Sadly, the grandmother is less than willing to talk about this act and rebuffs his earnest pleas to learn about his heritage.The second story takes place in Bethlehem in 2006, when a man’s Bashar (Ifan Huw Dafydd), home is about to be torn down in order to build a new wall as the Israeli security barrier is raised. Despite repeated entreaties by the soldier Isaac (Oliver Ryan) assigned to evict the man from his house, he is unfazed by the impending destruction and refuses to leave his home.Each of these scenes is acted in a thoroughly engaging, absolutely absorbing manner, causing the audience to become sincerely invested in these characters that are presented to them with little to no background or introduction. The person we learn the most about is Eva, whom we see at ripe old age, in the flush of youth, and desperate in the face of terror and death. After falling in love with her childhood sweetheart Aron, Eva marries him, thus ostracizing the third wheel – and only Christian - of the group, Felix. Following their marriage and the birth of their first child, Eva and Aron struggle to survive the Holocaust and their friendship with Felix is challenged to the point of breaking.As Eva, Parry achieves a remarkable accomplishment, creating a complete character out of a series of scenes, and making her a sincerely strong and likeable character. In one scene, she is a young woman at the height of life and joy. In another, she is in the throes of first love. Later, she is a wife and mother, struggling to hold her family together. We see her the most as an old woman – stiff and reserved and hard. She clutches so fiercely to her walking cane that one wonders if it is needed simply for physical needs or for emotional as well.She is joined in all of these scenes by Aron (Simon Nehan), her devoted husband, and Daniel Hawksford as Felix, the driven and desperate friend. Nehan gives Aron a blithe cheerfulness which later turns to sheer anguish, and, as Felix, Hawksford portrays sinister innocence. All three of the trio are sincerely likeable people in whom the audience sympathizes for as their story unfolds.It is the depth of these characters that is the strength of the play, but also its downfall. The quick changes between the two plays, along with the scenes of the actual rehearsal, are at times sudden and startling, giving the play a disjointed and incomplete feeling. So much is happening and it is so compelling that the audience doesn’t want a distraction, it wants more of the same.An example of this is an intense exchange between Ryan and Dafydd, where they attack each other’s religious and ethical backgrounds and actions, circling and screaming at each other. They accuse each other of ignorance, anger and aggression, giving the audience a crash course in the bigotry and prejudice that exists overseas. While the scene is most certainly effective, it seems to come out of nowhere and disappears suddenly. After watching it, one wishes to see it again, to absorb more – some of it must have been lost in the noise.The play takes a surprising turn near the end of the show, giving the audience much to ponder after the lights turn back on. However, due to the lack of a conclusion, this thoroughly absorbing performance is not completely satisfying. Or maybe that’s just how I remember it.