I I

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE X-FILES

Off Broadway Theater in West Bloomfield

by

ISRAEL HOROVITZ

Directed by RANDALL FORTE

"A superb play of real power and dimension .
.. It stays in the heart and the mind."

Jew Or Not A Jew?

— Clive Barnes, New York Post

Will viewers ever know the religious identity of
Special Agent Fox Mulder?

eligious issues have long been I read that interview way early
a source of story lines for the on," Gordon said.
Flashes of Mulder's parents' re-
Golden Globe-winning series
ligious
identity have been seen in
"The X Files."
When the series' two Special Agents other episodes; in
main characters aren't Fox Mulder and. "Anasazi" (written by
searching the skies for an- Dana Scully help Carter and Duchovny),
swers, Federal Bureau of a Chasidic Jew in Mulder's father is buried
Investigation Special Sunday's episode in a Protestant cemetery,
Agents Dana Scully and of "The X-Files. while in "Paper Hearts,"
Mulder rifles past a box of
Fox Mulder are exploring
Christmas
decorations in his
the supernatural, with religion be-
mother's basement.
ing no exception.
But in the script version of the
Cults have been crashed, de-
votions exposed and convictions "Kaddish" episode, Duchovny's
questioned in several of the series' original assessment of Mulder's
episodes. In one show, Scully be- religious identity is somewhat re-
came television history's most fa- established. During a murder in-
vestigation, he questions an
mous lapsed Roman Catholic.
But in all of this time, Mulder's anti-Semitic shop owner who
religious identity has not been ex- guesses at Mulder's religious iden-
tity, sneering, "You look like you
posed.
The controversy over Mulder's might be one yourself."
Later, as a Jewish scholar
worshipping ways began when
shows
him the original legend of
David Duchovny, the actor who
the
golem
in Hebrew and asks
plays Mulder and the son of for-
him
to
interpret
the meaning,
mer American Jewish Commit-
Mulder
says,
"I'm
sorry. I never
tee publicist Amram Ducovny,
went
to
Hebrew
school."
In the ac-
declared in an early interview that
tual
show,
he
says,
"I
don't
speak
until he is further told, he will as-
Hebrew."
sume the character he plays is
So, will the followers of the
Jewish.
show
ever know if Mulder is
But that wasn't the same
thought that was going on in the member of the tribe?
"For now, we will not know,"
mind of co-executive producer
says
Gordon, laughing.
Howard Gordon when he was co-
"I
don't know that we will ever
writing the episode of "Conduit,"
the third episode of the first sea- list his religious identity," he said.
"I don't think it is anything that
son.
In that show, viewers follow is particularly important to him."
"David and I have a thing be-
Agent Mulder as he investigates
an apparent alien abduction of a cause he is half-Jewish and he is
teen-aged girl. Finding the case grappling with his own Jewish
to have an almost unbearable par- identity as a person anyway," Gor-
allel to the abduction of his little don continued. "We skirted
sister, Mulder seeks emotional around it."
"I kind of had more fun with it
refuge in a church-like setting.
"At that time I assumed that by keeping it elliptical rather than
Fox Mulder — because Mulder is attempting to define it," he said.
("The X-Files" creator) Chris "For one thing, it would be con-
Carter's mother's maiden name, tradictory given things like the
which is Dutch — I just assumed Christmas decorations and the
that he was not Jewish, but then Protestant cemetery."

R

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enrietta
Renneyin Weinberg

Aaron De Roy Theatre

op.
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RIDLEY PEARSON

TO. DISCUSS AND SIG1 ■ 14

BEYOND RECOONITION

Published by Hyperion

WEDNESDAY • FEBRUARY 19 • 7:30pm

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FARMINGTON HILLS: 30995 ORCHARD LAKE RD.

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F EB RU ARY

Things heat up and don't slow down in Ridley
Pearson's most suspenseful crime novel yet. In Beyond
Recognition, a police sergeant and criminal psychologist join
forces in pursuit of a serial arsonist setting fires so hot they burn
steel. The film rights to three of his previous novels, The Angel
Maker, No Witnesses & Undercurrents were sold to HBO
with Jamie Lee Curtis in the starring role.
Ridley Pearson can also be found playing bass guitar in
the literary garage band, The Rock Bottom Remainders with
Stephen King, Dave Barry & Amy Tan.

114.,

95