Winnipeg Jewish Theatre's How to Disappear Completely illuminates, stimulates

The theatrical lighting designer's art, Itai Erdal says in his one-man show How to Disappear Completely, is ephemeral. The effects he creates with light are destined to to dim slowly or fade quickly, but ultimately disappear completely.

And does life do the same? That's one of the questions posed in this intelligent, dense and emotionally powerful show, a production by Vancouver's Chop Theatre getting a Winnipeg run as part of Winnipeg Jewish Theatre's season.

Erdal is a lighting designer by trade — not, he tells us, a trained actor, though his easy way with a story and command of the stage might lead you to believe otherwise. He was also, at one point, an aspiring documentary filmmaker.

And that's why 17 years ago, as his mother was dying of cancer, he returned from Canada to his native Israel to document her final days.

Some of that documentary footage is woven into his hour-long monologue, which tells the story of his last months with his mother. In the process, it touches on everything from the finer points of lighting design to mortality to an anecdote about an amorous sea mammal.

The intelligence of the script, which Erdal co-wrote with James Long, Emelia Symington Fedy and Anita Rochon, is in they way all of those seemingly disparate elements tie together into a thoughtful and introspective whole.

Its emotional power comes from Erdal and how matter-of-factly he details his mother's last days and interacts with footage of their final conversations, translating their Hebrew for us.

He's never mawkish about what he's presenting — he doesn't need to be. The honesty of Erdal's story and the veracity of the images he presents — which take on an almost ghostly quality in this context — carry an emotional heft of their own.

It's no pity party, though. Erdal sprinkles what could be a morose hour with easygoing charm and flashes of humour (see: amorous sea mammal anecdote or his depiction of a rave).

It's a stimulating and illuminating piece of theatre, and not to be missed.

Winnipeg Jewish Theatre's presentation of How to Disappear Completely runs at the Berney Theatre in the Asper Jewish Community Campus until April 1.

WJT announces 30th anniversary season

Winnipeg Jewish Theatre will celebrate its 30th season with the return of its festival of new plays, the launch of a new American Sign Language subscription series and a Tony Award-winning musical. Here's what's coming up:

Tribes (Oct. 19-29): This multiple award-winning play by British playwright Nina Raine focuses on Billy, who is deaf — and how meeting a young woman who is slowly going deaf forces him to confront questions about whether he belongs in the hearing world of his family or the deaf community he is discovering. The play will launch WJT's American Sign Language-interpreted subscription season with two ASL-interpreted performances.

So, Nu? A Festival of New Canadian Jewish Plays (March 6-11, 2018): Returning after a one-year hiatus, this festival will feature readings of three new plays, with a production of a new play from Michael Rubenfeld and Sarah Garton Stanley called We Keep Coming Back. Their play tells the story of a mother and son, who are descended from Holocaust survivors, returning to Poland. It will be a family affair — Rubenfeld's mother, Mary Berchard, will star.

Falsettos (May 2-13): A co-production with Winnipeg musical theatre company Dry Cold Productions, William Finn and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning musical focuses on Marvin and his struggles to create a family out of a disparate group, including his ex-wife, his new boyfriend, his son and his psychiatrist, as the 1970s give way to the '80s.