Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
A Hollywood Fringe production at the Hudson Main Stage Theater
Through June 28
RECOMMENDED
A gay Armenian-American and a devoted Dad, Haig (pronounced “hike”) Chahinian threads his personal story with intrepid insights about intolerance, including how the experience of victimhood doesn’t always translate into empathy for others. At a time when bigots and haters have seized the reins of the federal government to perpetrate their bile, and the State of Israel, once a haven for Holocaust survivors, seems hellbent on the cruel destruction of the Palestinian people, his comments are germane and timely and lend weight to his performance.
Chahinian grew up in Cerritos, a place, he wryly quips, best known for its auto square, but his story traces his family history back to 1915 and the Armenian genocide, in which all four of his great grandparents were slaughtered by the Turks. The root causes of this horror: Turkey was going through tough economic times, and needed a scapegoat (sound familiar?), so they settled on non-Muslims. The murder of his great-grandparents left their children, his grandparents, orphans and refugees. One of his grandmothers found her way to Palestine, but was exiled from her home (once again) in 1948 when the state of Israel was established. Declining to return to Armenia with Stalin in power, she made her way to the US.
As the narrative moves forward, Chahinian recounts how he met his future husband, and their efforts, following marriage, to adopt a child. Eventually, they adopted a biracial child, and the story evolves into Chahinian’s joy in parenting their daughter. Still, the difference in his and his child’s ethnicity, and the fact that his daughter had two dads but no mother, produced some awkward situations, on the playground and in the neighborhood. Chahinian’s reflections include an examination of his own unconscious fears and where they come from, part of his commentary on race as a personal wedge among us, even when unintended.
Relevance aside, Chahinian relays his story with soft-spoken charm and the kind of casual wit which makes him seem like someone you’d like to chat with at a party. Going forward, his performance would benefit from an astute director to chart the pacing, among other things, and a bit of dramaturgy to shape and refine his chronicle.
https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/11548, Tues., June 27, 7 pm, Sat., June 21, 5 pm, Sat., June 28, 7 pm. Running time: approximately one hour.
