JRT's 'Wanderers' Hits at the Heart

Theater as it is meant to be: provocative, entertaining and oh so alive!

“The Wanderers” at Jewish Repertory Theater is a poignant relationship puzzle involving two couples who are finding out that love is not always enough. The friction on their marriages by outside forces, plus the frustration of unmet needs, leads to desperate measures and surprising choices.

That said, the best choices for JRT’s “The Wanderers” have been made by the cast and production team. These actors and designers take what could have been a gimmicky conceit by the playwright -- toggling between two couples, living four decades apart, all on one stage – and transform it into everything the writer Anna Ziegler could have hoped for. The simple, flexible set – as an office, a bedroom, a city street – becomes a showcase for five outstanding performances. It’s a winning show.

Esther and Schmuli (Arin Lee Dandes and Adam Yellen) open the night as uncertain newlyweds trying to puzzle out how to “commence” their honeymoon. As Orthodox Jews in the 1970s, their sheltered upbringings haven’t prepared them for this adventure. Helpfully, perhaps, Esther has “read a book” – showing an initiative and womanly curiosity that foretell of trouble ahead.

Across the stage, secular Jews Sophie and Abe (Jordan Levin and Alexandria Watts) are living in the 2010s and struggling with their own stagnating writing careers. Abe has won big awards but is unfulfilled: he’s still no Philip Roth. Supportive Sophie feels even less valued, giving up her own writing dreams to parent the children who apparently are as unseen to Abe as they are to the audience.

Instead, Abe finds validation from an unexpected source. After spotting Julia Cheever (a slinky Aleks Malejs), a famous movie actress, in the front row at one of his readings, he receives a flattering email from her and begins a correspondence – a correspondence that becomes increasingly revealing and confessional. In an effective bit of stagecraft, the messages are “performed” by Abe at his desk and Julia, fittingly, a distance away, elevated on a small platform (on a pedestal?), elegantly dressed and illuminated in an almost ethereal way.

Meanwhile, back in the 1970s, Schmuli and Esther have figured things out enough to have two daughters and another child on the way, even as they find themselves living in different worlds. Esther sees no reason to ignore every advantage (radios, magazines) of modern life; Schmuli sees no way to allow it. The climax of this conflict sends shudders through the theater, as Dandes shows just how it feels to have one’s heart torn apart.

The back and forth between couples is easy to follow, leaving room in our brains to imagine how these stories are connected and what other revelations are in store. Yellen and Dandes are, as usual, excellent together and treat Esther and Schmuli as equal voices, even though their rigid culture does not.

Because of his “pen pal” scenes, we hear much more from Abe, who Levin pointedly plays as a self-centered schmuck, than we get to see of Sophie, which is a shame. Watts holds nothing back and makes the most of her brief scenes, as Sophie realizes that only one of them is trying to make their marriage work.

Eventually Ziegler brings the stories of her wandering tribes together, as motives and context mesh smoothly into the “how” and “why” of what was really going on with these partners. Everyone might not get a happy ending, but it is a satisfying one, a nice reward for braving a night out in this seemingly endless winter. In fact, it makes it all worth it.

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“The Wanderers” by Anna Ziegler (who also wrote “Photograph 51,” seen at JRT in 2021), continues through March 2 in the Maxine and Robert Seller Theatre at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo, 2640 North Forest Road, Amherst. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays (Feb. 23 is sold out). Tickets are $48; $15 for students, at jccbuffalo.org.