Bruce Nozick and Aviva Pressman (Photo by Jordan Gohara)
Reviewed by Asa Fris
International City Theater at the Beverly O’Neill Theater
Thru May 11
The Violin Maker by Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum and Ronda Spinak is based on the life of Amnon Weinstein, a luthier who specializes in violins. This is the American premiere of the production, and International City Theater handles the story sensitively, but ultimately lacks the precision needed to make it compelling or engaging as a whole.
The narrative follows Amnon (Bruce Nozick), his family, and the “Violins of Hope.” Amnon narrates his family’s journey, from when his parents, Moshe (Matthew Bohrer) and Golda (Sheer Aviram), decided to move to Palestine through to the present day. His father, Moshe, is drawn to violins at an early age, and eventually decides to study the craft of making them.
Alongside his newly betrothed, Golda, Moshe first moves to Warsaw to study his craft, and then to Palestine to escape the growing danger to Jewish people in Europe. Soon after they arrive the Second World War starts, and Moshe must grapple with the complicated reality of being separated from his friends and family. He also begins to receive German-made violins from local musicians, who refuse to keep the instruments in their possession, let alone play them.
Amnon becomes a luthier too, but his father is reluctant to speak with him about anything but violin making. And before Amnon can learn more about his past, Moshe passes, leaving Amnon with mysteries about his family. It’s not until he interacts with a new student from Germany that he’s forced to confront the mysteries of his past, and the responsibility of the present.
Rosenbaum’s script consists largely of narration, with scenes that depict actions and events interspersed throughout. This works well because Amnon’s story is so compelling that it doesn’t take much to engage and move the audience. The company handles the story with sensitivity and care, especially when characters tell of the harrowing or triumphant experiences of their family, their friends, and themselves. And the production even features one of the Violins of Hope, and when it’s presented on stage, the weight of its presence is palpable.
But superfluous blocking causes the play to drag, and ill-defined conflict makes this moving tale difficult to connect with. The story alone is enough, so when characters act out what they’re already telling us or pause after every couple of sentences, the momentum and clarity of the story is lost. These directorial decisions in particular make it hard to follow Nozick as the narrator. He’s tasked not only with narrating as Amnon, but also with portraying him in scenes that span his childhood to when he’s eighty. As directed by caryn desai, Nozick never fully realizes Amnon’s persistent internal struggle with his history and the violins, which leads the narration and the scenes to feel stilted and not connected to a throughline of action.
This is true for every character, though Morgan Lauff as the German student, Gunther Haas, still finds consistent presence and relatability as the young and passionate luthier to be. He, as well as every actor but Nozick, doubles as other characters from various countries. The actors take on a different accent for each role, which can be distracting, though their characters are otherwise differentiated well, aided by Kimberly DeShazo’s costume design.
Destiny Manewal’s set design consists of a luthier workshop, a storage wall for the workshop, and a dining room with a bookshelf and table, as well as some newly arrived violin boxes down stage right. All are beautifully crafted, and full of intricate detail, but the set is placed too far upstage to aid the action of the play. And most of the stage is bare, leaving questions about why the set and the staged action are positioned so far upstage.
Though the production feels limited in ways, the story of Amnon and the Violins of Hope remains compelling.
International City Theater, Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center’s Beverly O’Neill Theater. 330 East Seaside Way, Long Beach. Thurs.-Sat., 7:30 pm, Sun., 2 pm; thru May 11. InternationalCityTheatre.org. Running time approximately two hours with an intermission
