Everything That Never Happened

Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Boston Court Pasadena
Through November 4

RECOMMENDED

Sarah B. Mantell’s poignant play begins with a young couple capering playfully across the spare, unembellished set. Their first words are tentative; they’re the sort uttered, pretty much ubiquitously, between would-be lovers who do not know each other well. For a couple of minutes, you wonder if you’re in for a fancified rom-com about the rocky shoals coursed over by true love.

But before long, the narrative has pivoted, and coalesced around a more deep-rooted relationship between a widowed father and his brilliant, beautiful daughter. The father is Shylock (Leo Marks), a thoughtful and loving (albeit over-protective and patronizing) Jewish man inhabiting the city of Venice’s Jewish ghetto in 1596, and earning a living as a money lender, one of the few occupations permitted Jews at the time. His daughter Jessica (Erika Soto), now of marriageable age, is the apple of his eye and understandably so; she’s lovely inside and out, with an exceptional mind that embraces a head for figures and a canniness about business, as well as a special gift that sometimes allows her to see historical events in the future. Jessica loves her dad but can’t stand her circumscribed life — her freedom is curtailed by the gates of the ghetto, which bolt at sunset, and also by her gender. As a Jewish woman, she’s proscribed from numerous activities; she’s forbidden, for example, from saying the kaddish, a holy prayer that bonds the Jewish people with God. Its recitation is reserved solely for men, however less intelligent or moral or pious than herself they may be.

So it’s no surprise that despite her feelings for her father, Jessica is chomping at the bit. When Lorenzo (Paul Culos), a handsome young Christian man, proposes marriage, offering her liberty and another kind of life, she can’t resist. She conspires with her father’s servant Gobbo (Dylan Saunders) to manipulate her dad out of the house at a set time so she can sneak away. This involves pressuring Shylock into lending money to Antonio, whom the wary money lender emphatically does not like and is reluctant to do business with. It’s Shylock’s confidence in his daughter’s instincts, his belief that she could not steer him wrong, that persuade him to the deal.

We know how it will end, of course; Shakespeare’s already told us, and Mantell doesn’t revise the outcome. Instead, she spins the story from an entirely different standpoint, or rather two — that of the Jew, the humiliated scapegoat and ultimate outsider, and that of an intelligent young woman who longs to see the world, but whose only destiny, according to her culture, is to defer to men and bear children.

Everything That Never Happened builds around two vibrant, likable characters: both possess humor and a strong moral sense but are compelled by emotion to abandon their best instincts and act badly. It’s an intense story with universal themes: youth versus age, and the impulse to honor and duty versus the desire for a life worth living for oneself.

Soto, an actress of enormous gamin charm, outdoes herself here. Her Jessica is smart and sweet, even as she engineers to betray her values not only by stealing away with a Gentile but also by purloining her father’s life savings and the ring he holds dear. Her performance might dominate the production entirely, except that Marks is so profoundly moving as the double-crossed Shylock. Jessica is his greatest treasure, and in Marks’ portrayal, you perceive what his character is thinking, in love and in crisis — before his world is shattered and then after. His moments of realization are riveting.

Elsewhere, a dashing Culos fills the bill as Jessica’s lovestruck but not especially bright suitor; one can divine how her attraction to him, despite his ardor, might fade pretty fast. And Saunders gives a remarkable interpretation of Gobbo – not just a wily servant (himself in love with Jessica), as one could have interpreted the role, but an odd embittered man exacting revenge on his master for some ill-defined wrong.

Sound designer John Nobori skillfully charts the ebb and flow of the story and its escalating climax, while Jaymi Lee Smith’s lighting elaborates on the narrative with ever-darkening hues.

Jessica Kubzansky directs all with the sure and sensitive hand that is her trademark.

Boston Court Pasadena, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m;, through Nov. 4; BostonCourtPasadena.org or (626) 683-6801. Running time: 85 minutes with no intermission.