Arts 8z Entertainment •or Naz Edwards, Babs George and Mark Rademacher in Coming of Age Dubin. Delivers JET's world premiere of Coming of Age is nicely wrought, insightful and funny. Susan Zweig Special to the Jewish News As Maurice Chevalier once said, "Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative." Not exactly a ringing endorsement, just a situation made.more toler- able by comparison. • Such is the mindset of play- wright Kitty Dubin's Coming of Age, enjoying its world premiere at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre in West-Bloomfield through May 21. Depending on the eyes through which it is. viewed, getting older is either about what's lost or, thank- fully, gained. Through Dubin's lens and the scrutiny of her three main•characters, the familiar sub- ject matter gains a trio of distinct perspectives. Fighting the clock with every- thing she can muster is Sarah Simon (the palpably intense Naz Edwards), each day closer to 60 and every glance in the mirror confirming what is no longer as decidedly hers to flaunt. Rather than dissect the emotions and inevitable occurrences that loom with that marker, Sarah's resis- tance to aging consumes her. This stands to splinter her relationship with her husband, - Ben (the delightfully understated Mark Rademacher), and her best friend, Holly (Babs George), who transforms seamlessly from dish, tag to dish due to the constancy • of a Bohemian painter (Thomas Hoagland). Only someone willing to face reality and vanity head on can make the necessary internal fixes. In doing so, Sarah has the chance to become whole again and redis- cover the person that drew her husband and friend to her long ago. While hardly novel, the play's Same Time, Next Year con- struction (at a cottage near Lake Michigan over several years) serves its intended pur- pose, allowing the audience to watch how personal wrestling with the Sarah's.preoccupation with youth subject matter (an almost thera- and the loss of it intensifies the peutic exercise, Coming of Age friction with those who love her was written as Dubin herself most. approached 60), what might be Gillian Eaton's direction is, as pat in lesser hands turns into a always, crackling and crisp. With nicely wrought, insightful, funny . her adventurous musical choices, and thoroughly enjoyable eve- one was perhaps only left wishing ning. for more unexpected and var- • As to informing her characters' ied expressions of days passing inner selves, it doesn't hurt, either, beyond the time-lapse of clouds. that, among the many lives Ms. While stage-right intensive, Dubin manages to have lived in Christopher Carothers' set depicts her background notes, it turns a summer home worthy of envy. out she spent 26 years as a psy- Diane Ulseth's properties lend the chotherapist. place a lived-in, cozy feel. Mary Certainly, time, the construct Copenhagen's costumes aptly being grappled with throughout project the internal goings-on of the show, slips past without even Dubin's characters. realizing it. Thanks to the playwright's Which, when operating as it should, is a lot like life has a habit of doing. 0 Jewish Ensemble Theatre's production of Kitty Dubin's Coming of Age runs through May 21 in the Aaron DeRoy Theatre in the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays (excluding May 17, when there will be a matinee at 2 p.m.), 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $28-$37, with discounts for seniors and students. (248) 788-2900. Tormented By The Past An artist, his model and the moral and political implications of their relationship. Morton I. Teicher Special to the Jewish News I n 2001, after halting con- centrated on writing poetry, Elizabeth Rosner made her debut as a novelist with the well-received The Speed of Light (now in paperback from Ballantine). The book won prizes, medals and awards, including the Harold U. Ribalow Prize and the Prix France Bleu Gironde. It used an unusual literary device to tell an intriguing story of love and loss. Two of the book's three protago- nists were children of Holocaust survivors. The impact of their par- ents' agonies resulted in pain and suffering that was matched by the tribulations of the third character, whose Latin American family was destroyed by soldiers hunting for revolutionary guerrillas. 44 May 4 • 2006 The Holocaust also is the back- Time Traveling • drop for Rosner's new book, Blue During the Holocaust, Merav's Nude (Ballantine; $22.95), which grandmother hid in a barn, features Merav, the granddaugh- where a German soldier, Danzig's ter of a Holocaust survivor, and father, discovered her. He aimed Danzig, the son of a Nazi storm at her heart but couldn't shoot trooper. because "he fell in love with her She is a model, posing nude in beauty" She eventually came to life drawing classes. Israel, where Merav He is a San Francisco was born. art instructor in one Danzig, born of whose classes she after World War appears. Both are II, grew up in an frustrated painters, unhappy family; although he had his father' couldn't once achieved some find work because success. he had been "too They recognize close to the inner - that he is German circles" of the Nazis. and that she is As soon as he Israeli, but neither could, following his one is aware of the art studies, Danzig Rosner's no vel special connection left Germany and reflects her back- they have to each settled in San Francisco. ground as a poet. other. Merav, whose child- iN hood was spent on a kibbutz, also came to San Francisco, where she had a cousin. She had completed her military service and was recovering from the tragic end to a long-lasting romance. What happens to these two malcontent people is examined in flashback scenes that relate their poignant life stories. Their biographies unfold as Merav removes her clothing to pose as a model — first in Israel, then in Danzig's classes and, finally, in his studio in Point Reyes, north- west of San Francisco on the Pacific coast. Although the movement back and forth through timeand the abrupt shifts from one charac- ter's background to the other is sometimes a bit confusing, the storyline inexorably proceeds. Rosner writes beautifully, reflecting her background as a poet. Unlike her first novel, where the pain and suffering of her characters eventually yielded to emancipation and release, there is no happy ending here. There is, however, the hope of.new begin- nings. The great 'promise Rosner showed in The Speed of Light has been fully realized in Blue Nude. She is a talented and thoughtful writer who has suc- cessfully fleshed out the charac- ters of two fully rounded people who come alive for readers. Elizabeth Rosner reads from her novel Blue Nude 2 p.m. Sunday, May 14, at Borders, 34300 Woodward, in Birmingham. (248) 203-0005.