{"id":7569,"date":"2014-09-19T00:44:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T07:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=7569"},"modified":"2014-09-17T18:31:12","modified_gmt":"2014-09-18T01:31:12","slug":"at-foundation-of-my-rabbi-is-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2014\/09\/19\/at-foundation-of-my-rabbi-is-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"At foundation of My Rabbi is friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a successful run in Edinburgh, Scotland, the play My Rabbi<\/em>, from Sum Theatre, has arrived in Victoria. It comes to Vancouver next month.<\/p>\n

The playwrights and performers are Kayvon Kelly from Vancouver and Joel Bernbaum from Saskatoon. Their co-creation is billed as a \u201ccomedic drama about faith, friendship and fathers\u201d by taking \u201ca look at old world politics through the eyes of two young guys in a pub.\u201d<\/p>\n

My Rabbi<\/em> follows a pair of Canadian best friends that take on divergent spiritual journeys. Arya is a Muslim who searches for cultural identity in the Middle East, while Jacob is a Jew who goes on to become a rabbi.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Kayvon Kelly (photo from Sum Theatre)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe play is about the connection between two boyhood friends but, at its heart, it is about Canadian identity and how that relates to the battle between old world politics and religious boundaries,\u201d Kelly told the Jewish Independent<\/em> in an email interview.<\/p>\n

The friendship between Arya and Jacob is based on that shared by Kelly and Bernbaum.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used our friendship as a springboard for the story. The base of the friendship is ours,\u201d Bernbaum explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur sense of humor with each other is strongly reflected in these characters,\u201d added Kelly.<\/p>\n

Kelly said the inspiration for My Rabbi<\/em> came from his and Bernbaum\u2019s cultural backgrounds \u2013 Kelly is half Irish and half Iranian, while Bernbaum is Jewish.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always found these differences vibrant and positive,\u201d said Kelly. \u201cBut, we also acknowledged that, for a great deal of the world, these differences cause the greatest conflict. We wanted to explore why it is this way with [so] many,\u201d but not with others.<\/p>\n

Both Bernbaum and Kelly have been involved in theatre since a young age, and Kelly explained the origins of their theatre company.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter we graduated from the [Canadian Centre for Performing Arts],\u201d he said, \u201cwe both took advice from our mentor to heart, which was to \u2018make your own work.\u2019 Both of us have always wanted to play a role in the shaping of the Canadian theatre community, and establishing our voices from within it. Forming Sum Theatre is one of the ways we have found to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Joel Bernbaum (photo from Sum Theatre)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

About My Rabbi<\/em>, Bernbaum said, \u201cPolitics, religion and family are all parts of this play, but they are not the focus; they are factors that impact the friendship. We see this play as an opportunity to challenge our audiences to work towards peace and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly added, \u201cWhether this platform enables conversation into the Israeli conflict, so much the better, but we are not making any direct political comments with this play. We are only asking questions, and making an attempt to boil the immense and often immeasurable global situation into a conversation between friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bernbaum said that, after a performance of My Rabbi<\/em> \u201cat the Edinburgh Fringe, an audience member came up \u2026 and told us that the play made him ask more questions, as opposed to giving him answers. This was great to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cArt has the ability \u2013 and the responsibility \u2013 to take people a little further down their path of engaging with the world around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly explained that the play \u201creflects who we were six years ago, who we are today and what we think we \u2018could\u2019 look like in some version of the future.\u201d He and Bernbaum share much of their personal lives in My Rabbi<\/em> and hope that audiences will be encouraged to do so also. \u201cThe live theatre experience creates a community, a group of people who have agreed to gather in one place. They bear witness, and thereby are able to feel involved \u2013 and culpable,\u201d said Kelly.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom pub humor to the spiritual journeys to the guys\u2019 relationships with their fathers, there is something for everyone,\u201d said Bernbaum.<\/p>\n

Zach Sagorin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

My Rabbi<\/em> is in Victoria at Belfry Studio A until Sept. 28 (belfry.bc.ca\/tickets<\/a>) and runs in Vancouver at Firehall Arts Centre (604-689-0926 or firehallartscentre.ca<\/a>) from Oct. 7-18 before heading to Saskatoon. For more information about the play, visit sumtheatre.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a successful run in Edinburgh, Scotland, the play My Rabbi, from Sum Theatre, has arrived in Victoria. It comes to Vancouver next month. The playwrights and performers are Kayvon Kelly from Vancouver and Joel Bernbaum from Saskatoon. Their co-creation is billed as a \u201ccomedic drama about faith, friendship and fathers\u201d by taking \u201ca look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[1924,1203,1922,1923],"class_list":["post-7569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-belfry-studio-a","tag-firehall-arts-centre","tag-joel-bernbaum","tag-kayvon-kelly"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}