The Stories We Tell - Lezlie Revelle Zucker

“The Stories We Tell” is composed of three short plays about contemporary Jewish life and identity written and directed by Lezlie Revelle Zucker. Narrated by the progressive Rabbi Becca, a roller derby playing lesbian, the theme connecting these playlets is stated in the program as, “What happens when we discover a story we tell ourselves isn’t true in the way we thought?” While this is a provocative basis for a play, the script overall fails to deliver.

In the first scene, Hannah has a meltdown over whether she should play in a roller derby game or observe Shabbat with her husband as they committed to doing for six consecutive months. At the heart of this scene is the expressed challenge to being Jewish in a Christian society, but this is stated much more clearly by Rabbi Becca’s narration than through the action and conflict of the dialogue. Filled with puns and bad dad jokes, one ultimately wonders, “What is all this kvetching about?”

The second piece introduces a lesbian couple, one of whom converted to Judaism when they married. In researching her family history, she discovers a deep dark secret. The resulting conflict and denouement veer into obfuscated arguments and identity crises befitting an afterschool special more than a rational, adult drama. There was enough interest in this scene to make one wonder if the idea could be developed into a more fleshed out piece. However, this may be the result of the standout performance by Meaghann Deveroux who takes an implausible situation and grounds it in reality with superb acting.

The last scene introduces a mother and daughter, the latter of whom assumed her grandparents survived the Holocaust. This scene is so perplexing as it veers from realism to melodrama that it fails to land a clear message and confuses more than it explains. Overall, “The Stories We Tell” feels more like skits written for a synagogue lesson rather than a complete, dramatic work. While there are a few notable performances (Nathaniel Thomas and Mary Crouch Young also standout), it is difficult for the actors to rise above the weak script and direction.

Florence Matina who plays Rabbi Becca brings an entirely different perspective to the performance. In each of her narrations between scenes, she became visibly moved to tears expressing the challenges she or this character (?) have faced especially when she delivered the line, “The stories we tell are powerful.” While her emotion was palpable, the overall effect of the show felt hollow.