Philly Fringe 2018: Half Key Theatre Company’s ‘Behold Her’ (first review)

The play unfolds across 16 short scenes that alternate between contained portraits of historical figures and invented narratives that speak to universal experiences. Two actors, Marcia Saunders and Michaela Shuchman, embody great women from Bella Abzug to Hedy Lamarr, donning and doffing Laila Swanson’s costumes with lightning speed. (A third actor, Josie Ross, does little more than move set pieces). Musician Charlotte Morris provides lovely interludes between scenes (Chana Rothman composed and arranged the music), displaying a powerful voice and aptitude across a variety of instruments.

A scientist and a poet

Kass’s writing is at its best when she takes on the serious work of remembering lost icons of Jewish life. The most affecting vignette dramatizes the life of Dr. Leonore Brecher, a Romanian zoologist whose groundbreaking work on butterflies was lost to sexism, anti-Semitism, and ultimately Nazism. Saunders brings fortitude and a quiet dignity to her portrayal of this proud woman, a yellow Star of David stitched to her white lab coat, sadly marking her fate.

Schuchman shines as Emma Lazarus, the Jewish American poet who composed “The Great Colossus,” the immortal words etched onto the Statue of Liberty. She recites the poem with genuine feeling, and its words of acceptance and hope have never felt more urgent. Elsewhere, though, Schuchman could do more to differentiate between the characters she plays.

Writing her back in?

Unfortunately, too much of the material presented here wallows in schmaltzy sentimentality, and many of the jokes in the script are stale. Rather than focusing its efforts on its stated goal — chronicling “the destruction of the Jewish woman” and then writing her back into the narrative — this self-described “vaudeville-style hodgepodge” often feels like second-rate sketch comedy.

A scenelet about the development of makeup that can be applied during Shabbos continues long after it ceases being amusing. A portrait of a female Israeli Defense Force captain’s relationship to her semiautomatic contains a glib button about U.S. gun violence. Long sections about weight and hair are neither as funny or as trenchant as they aim to be, and a scene that explores how Jewish women used feminine guile to survive the Holocaust turns regrettably mawkish.

Director Tori Mittelman could make better use of the Dell Theater’s large stage space, which is dwarfed mostly by Yoshi Nomura’s moveable unit set. (Nomura’s lighting design is nicely evocative, though). Morris could also be more smoothly integrated into the action. Music plays a major role in Jewish culture, but here it can sometimes feel like an afterthought.

Performances of Behold Her take place at the National Museum of American Jewish History, one of Philadelphia’s most vital cultural institutions. Throughout the show, I couldn’t help thinking the audience would learn more by simply walking upstairs and looking around.

To read Alaina Johns's review, click here.