Schmuli (Paris Hunter Paul) and Esther (Elyse Edelman) share an awkward first moment as husband and wife in "The Wanderers" with Forward Theater Company.
Alanna Lovely plays Sophie in "The Wanderers" with Forward Theater Company.
Cassandra Bissell, left, plays Julia Cheever and Greg Pragel plays Abe in "The Wanderers" with Forward Theater Company.
Greg Pragel plays Abe and Alanna Lovely plays Sophie in "The Wanderers" with Forward Theater Company.
Cassandra Bissell plays Julia in "The Wanderers" with Forward Theater Company.
Food editor and arts reporter
Schmuli (Paris Hunter Paul) and Esther (Elyse Edelman) share an awkward first moment as husband and wife in "The Wanderers" with Forward Theater Company.
Cassandra Bissell plays Julia in "The Wanderers" with Forward Theater Company.
Center stage in Forward Theater’s latest production sits a single, massive wooden table. Two legs are planted downstage, as though here with us in present tense. The surface extends toward an unseen vanishing point, like a gesture to the past, or maybe the future.
Theatrically, the table serves to divide the characters in Anna Ziegler’s play “The Wanderers,” running through Sept. 25 in the Overture Center Playhouse. It connects them too, suggesting family dinners, offering a place for romantic encounters, even doubling as a hospital bed for the birth of babies.
Sarah E. Ross has designed a playing space, set above a swirling, glittering galaxy painted onto the floor, that grounds the characters while pushing them apart. It’s an ideal place for a lovely, poetic play that pulses with emotional honesty, embracing awkwardness and transcendence in equal measure.
Greg Pragel plays Abe and Alanna Lovely plays Sophie in "The Wanderers" with Forward Theater Company.
Directed with sensitivity by Mikael Burke, “The Wanderers” revolves around two couples, connected in ways we don’t initially see.
Esther (Elyse Edelman, an exceptionally warm performer) and Schmuli (Peter Hunter Paul, believably timid) are Orthodox Jews, and have barely seen each other before they marry in 1970s Brooklyn. When pressed, all Schmuli can recall from their first meeting is her shoes.
“You might be crazy,” Esther says, astonished, still in her wedding dress. “To marry without even looking.”
Esther and Schmuli’s world is so tightly contained, a radio program or a bit of Mozart are cause for suspicion, never mind jobs for women or contraceptives. Esther cares for Schmuli but seeks more stimulation than their lives can offer. She wants variety.
“I don’t want to know what life has in store,” she says. “It’s boring that way.”
Alanna Lovely plays Sophie in "The Wanderers" with Forward Theater Company.
A generation later, Abe (Greg Pragel) and Sophie (Alanna Lovely) have been married for a decade and are skidding through a rough patch. Sophie, a writer, is casting about for what’s next — should she write another book? Or have another baby?
Greg’s had more success with his books, but he’s spinning his wheels too. When a glamorous movie star (Cassandra Bissell) shows up at a reading and fires off a fan email, she and Abe are deep into an online flirtation in what feels like seconds. Text by text, they imagine “living other lives.” (For actors, this is all very meta.)
Cassandra Bissell, left, plays Julia Cheever and Greg Pragel plays Abe in "The Wanderers" with Forward Theater Company.
Over the course of the play’s comfortably paced 105 minutes, each member of these couples betrays one another in ways large and small. Children disappoint their parents. Parents pass on their own pain.
It feels at once culturally specific and deeply familiar. Audience members may not know that “beshert” means “inevitable,” referring to one’s life partner. But who among us can’t immediately list all the ways we turned out contrary to our parents’ wishes? (Can a person “turn out” at all?)
“The Wanderers” shifts in time, but Ziegler is an excellent weaver, and Burke’s fine cast finds every beat. Designer Brad Toberman’s lighting seems to dim and intensify in response to the character’s emotions, as subtle as breath.
What resonates most is the warmth, the love and vulnerability Ziegler’s characters push themselves to share. Society doesn’t always make space for this kind of vulnerability, whether because of religious rules or dehumanizing screens.
But these people do. Maybe we can, too.
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Playhouse, Overture Center, 201 State St.
Running time is about 105 minutes. Mask requirements will vary based on public health recommendations.
Food editor and arts reporter
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