Janis Dardais, Adam Pelta-Pauls, Mason Rosenthal and Susan Riley Stevens in “Marsha Blovotnick and the Marvelous Magical Chicken Soup.” (Courtesy of Theatre Ariel)
When it comes to telling classic and contemporary Jewish stories on stage, there are few that do it as well as Philadelphia’s Theatre Ariel.
Since 1990, the Center City company has been blending Jewish folklore and topical themes to make audiences laugh, cry and everything in between.
And from March 12 to 22, a new play comes to Theatre Ariel that pledges to do both of those things and more.
“Marsha Blovotnick and the Marvelous Magical Chicken Soup,” a tale of an angry Jewish woman who is visited by an ancient Jewish ancestor with a pot of magical chicken soup, runs at Theatre Ariel this spring. The theater’s Producing Artistic Director Jesse Bernstein, who directed and produced the play, said that this play meets today’s needs of the Jewish community.
“What does our community need from arts and culture? It can be a few things. I think the main thing is that it refills your heart and your soul, and that you can do that through pieces that are focused on joy,” Bernstein said. “You can do that through pieces that challenge you, that ask you to think a little deeper about who you are and the world you want to see. It’s a mix of all that: how do I uplift? How do I challenge? How do I refocus?”
This isn’t your average show. “Marsha Blovotnick” first ran as a part of a series of three one-act shows last year. It was well-received, and Bernstein and the play’s writer, Dan Kitrosser, as well as audiences, fell in love with the titular character.
“It was hysterically funny, and part of me just wanted more. Marsha is such a unique, funny character. She’s this angry socialist, lesbian — which you read and you think, ‘Oh gosh, where are we going?’ But she’s delightful, and she is able to say things that we all secretly want to say, and it’s funny to watch her say it,” Bernstein said.
After completing the first iteration, the team at Theatre Ariel also thought that there was more to explore in terms of Blovotnick as a character and symbol.
“I also thought that there was more underneath, in terms of why she is angry. [Kitrosser] and I were talking about her, and we realized that her anger is actually getting in her way of connecting with people, of actually changing the world in the ways that she wants it to change,” Bernstein said. “So part of what Dan and I have discussed as he’s been working on the full length version of the script is exploring that.”
For Bernstein, this work of contemporary humor with Jewish folklore blends so well largely because the writer behind it is talented. Kitrosser has worked on award-winning shows and films and has the ability to bring loveable characters to life.
“What’s great about Dan is he’s hysterically funny, but he’s also got this very tender side to his work, and he’s capable of really making you feel something deeply, as well as making you have belly laughs,” Bernstein said.
“Marsha Blovotnick and the Marvelous Magical Chicken Soup” will run on Wednesdays through Saturdays in mid-March at the Bluver Theatre at The Drake.
Bernstein said the team that has been assembled for the show is a great one. The writing and acting is strong, but so is the lighting and set design. Without teasing too much, he said that the sets are in themselves worth coming for, as they have “weird angles and colors and dimensions,” and the props are largely inspired by pop-up children’s books.
For Bernstein, this journey began at a past playreading when he met Kitrosser. They realized they lived around the corner from each other, and a great working relationship was formed. It’s not necessarily common for a one-act to evolve into something bigger, but this show was just too good, Bernstein said.
“I think people just really related to Marcia. The laughter was infectious, and people just wanted more of that. And so it seemed like a no-brainer to take that one act and blow it up into something bigger,” he said.