'Rose': Surviving with laughter and tears
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Mary Wheeler is Rose, an 80-year-old Eastern European Jewish survivor of World War II, telling her story, in Unadilla Theatre's production of "Rose," Martin Sherman's one-woman show that opened recently on Broadway. STEFAN HARD/TIMES ARGUS |
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By Jim Lowe Times Argus Staff - Published: July 3, 2009
"She laughed. And then she blew her nose. She had a cold. The bullet struck her forehead. It caught her in the middle of a thought. She was 9," Rose says, describing the death of her daughter by a Nazi soldier in Warsaw during World War II.
Mary Wheeler is Rose, an 80-year-old Jewish woman, born in the Ukraine, in the Unadilla production of "Rose," Martin Sherman's one-woman show, which opens tonight at rural Marshfield playhouse.
Sitting on a wooden bench in Miami Beach, as part of her Shiva mourning ritual, Rose tells the story of her life - from surviving the Warsaw ghetto and the British attempt to stem the flood of refugees to Palestine, to achieving the American capitalist dream, running a Miami hotel. There is plenty of laughter, as well as tears.
"I suppose if you have your first period and your first pogrom within the same month," Rose says, "you can safely assume your childhood is over."
Unadilla is presenting "Rose" on a double-bill with "Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza." Caryl Churchill's 15-minute play, which concerns the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has drawn great controversy, more so in the United States than in Israel. Written in a question-and-answer format, the short work will be presented with audience participation after "Rose."
"Rose" opened in London last year to rave reviews and the same production, starring Olympia Dukakis and directed by Nancy Meckler, moved to Broadway to more mixed reviews. The character is a composite Sherman created, taking much from his own Russian Jewish family with a similar World War II heritage.
"She's a very tough woman who has been through a lot," explained Wheeler, a Vermont actress, musician and playwright. "She has had a lot of luck; she's had failure and heartbreak.
"She's a survivor - although she's not sure why."
Bill Blachly, Unadilla's founder who is directing both plays, feels that it is a much more universal play than just this one Jewish woman's experience.
"Living through the Nazi era and the Polish ghetto, getting to America," he said, "it's kind of the typical Eastern European Jewish experience. Of course they've all been dreaming of Palestine, and then of Israel."
For example, Rose's son goes to a kibbutz as a 16-year-old and decides to stay there and raise a family.
"But, he comes back to the United States and finds a blond American non-Jew who becomes 'more Catholic than the Pope.' She adapts to all the Jewish traditions to the point that he can't live with her," Blachly said.
One of Rose's grandchildren goes to Italy and gives up Judaism, while another, gay, moves to California.
"It's sort of a potpourri of what happens in America," Blachly said. "It could be anybody's experience today."
"Rose is kind of the prototype of the Jewish survivor of the whole experience of the decades from 1920 to 2002," Wheeler added.
What pushes Rose through these tumultuous times is her personal drive.
"She has a deep thirst for knowledge, for reading, learning and understanding, initially," Wheeler said. "And then it's more about survival, and then it's about love, and then again it was about survival. Then it was about making something for your family and protecting them.
"Towards the end it's more about questioning," Wheeler said. "She's not sure. It's all about questions."
The New York Times' major complaint about the piece was that it was too rambling, though much like an 80-year-old talking to children.
"When Olympia Dukakis did it, it was two hours and a half long," Blachly said. "So we cut it down to about an hour and 20 minutes."
"We made some really terrific cuts," Wheeler said. "We tried to take out everything that wasn't essential to the character - so we lost a few laughs, and we lost some other stuff that we could do without."
"If you sat down to analyze it, it would be a little hokey," Blachly said. "But in the doing of it, it's very moving."