Arts & Entertainment
Statue of Spinoza in
Amsterdam: Spinoza,
a Dutch philosopher
of Portuguese Jewish
origin, is considered one
Spinoza Takes On God
of the great rationalists
of 17th-century
philosophy, laying
Will the 17th-century Jewish philosopher
be expelled as a heretic, or will Amsterdam
expel its Jews? See the next show at JET.
the groundwork for
the Enlightenment
and modern biblical
criticism, and one of
Western philosophy's
definitive ethicists.
Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News
N
ew Jerusalem, David Ives' drama
examining the excommunica-
tion controversy that surrounded
17th-century Jewish philosopher Baruch de
Spinoza, has a complicated main character.
The playwright explains that the charac-
ter is not Spinoza.
"The Jewish community is the main
character because these people have the
most to lose: says Ives, whose play will be
performed March 16-April 10 by Jewish
Ensemble Theatre in West
Bloomfield.
"Spinoza can go off
and live his life, but the
Jewish community — the
rabbi, the congregation,
family and friends — is
faced with losing Spinoza
Playwright
and shaken by what is
Charles Ives
clearly a traumatic expe-
rience:"
The play, subtitled The Interrogation
of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah
Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656,
imagines what transpired in the absence
of record when a convocation of Spinoza's
temple board is called to question the then
20-something philosopher about his con-
cept of God, which is seen as threatening
to both traditional Jewish and Christian
beliefs.
David Magidson, JET artistic director, is
directing the production. The cast includes
Mitchell Koory as Spinoza, Caroline Price
as Rebekah de Spinoza, Loren Bass as
Rabbi Saul Levi Mortera, Hugh Maguire as
Abraham van Valkenburgh, Phil Powers as
Gaspar Rodrigues Ben Israel, Rob Pantano
as Simon de Vries and Christina Flynn as
Clara von den Enden.
"Spinoza is one of the greatest Jewish
intellects: Magidson says. "I think audiences
will find this action-oriented and will be
interested from the first second."
Ives explains that a statement made by
Albert Einstein inspired the action.
"A few years ago, I read that Einstein was
once asked if he believed in God, and he
answered that he believed in Spinoza's God:
recalls Ives, 60, who grew up in Chicago
and summered with family in Three Rivers,
Mich.
"I wondered what that meant and hap-
pened to find a book about Spinoza. I real-
ized there was a wonderful play to be writ-
ten because of the way Spinoza's life and all
of Western philosophy changed on one day
in 1656."
Ives became intrigued by what he consid-
ered a Faustian bargain that the Sephardic
Jewish community of Amsterdam had cut
with the Dutch authority. The community
had religious freedom so long as they made
sure nobody was spreading unorthodox
opinions that could be inflammatory.
"This deal created a situation in which
there was no happy outcome to the Spinoza
affair because the Jewish community could
neither keep Spinoza, who was a favorite son
and thought to be the next [chief] rabbi, nor
could they happily kick him out," Ives says.
"I wanted to explore that relationship."
Ives, who has a long history writing the-
atrical comedy, won the Outer Critics Circle
Playwriting Award for All in the Timing, a
group of one-acts that ran for two years Off-
Broadway and was the most performed the-
ater piece in the country after Shakespeare
productions in the 1995-96 season.
"While New Jerusalem certainly was a
departure from the comedies, I see the
time writing it as very happy and won-
derfully exciting: says Ives, educated at
Northwestern University and Yale School of
Drama.
"I spent months researching and taking
notes but wrote the first draft in about 10
days.
"It is more fun to write comedy in the
sense that I sit at my writing table and chor-
tle more often as I write, but there's a daily
intensity in working on drama that is very
delightful because of grappling with issues
and coming away with something that is
more substantial."
Spotlighting Jewish characters seems to
have evolved naturally for the playwright,
whose wife is Jewish and who describes
himself as gravitating into many Jewish
circles.
"I had a couple of important Jewish
girlfriends, and everything in life probably
comes down to girlfriends;' he jokes.
Through his research, Ives learned that
Spinoza was charming even though feared
in his own time.
"That, in itself, is an interesting character
to put at the center of a drama about tur-
moil: explains the playwright, who devel-
oped all of his characters to be implicated in
the action.
"Spinoza seems to have been simultane-
ously humble and arrogant, also a fasci-
nating trait combination. He was sort of
a Hamlet figure because he was endlessly
interesting. I partly wanted to write his
drama and partly wanted to meet him."
Ives, whose humorous books for young
people include Monsieur Eek and Scrib,
compares issues in the play to issues of
today.
"I think that the political tensions in the
world with Islam certainly have brought
religion to the fore in a way that it hasn't
been," says Ives, who recently began writing
dialogue in verse.
"We see that religious beliefs impinge
on social structures in a huge way and are
much more intrinsic to the way we live and
the future that we face."
JET stages New Jerusalem March 16-April 10 at the Jewish Community Center
in West Bloomfield. Performance times are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 5 and 8:30
p.m. Saturdays, March 26-April 9; and 2 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays, March 27-April
10. Other show times are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 16; 5 p.m. Saturday,
March 19; and 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 6. $32-$41, with discounts for students
and seniors. (248) 788-2900; www.jettheatre.org .
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Alisi I Nate Bloom
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to the Jewish News
16r,
_et 21/2 Mentshen?
min Brooke Mueller, 33, Charlie Sheen's
estranged wife and the mother of his
INK twin 23-month-old sons, filed a peti-
tion for a temporary restraining order
preventing him from
contacting them.
In her petition,
Mueller laid out his
history of domestic
violence and drug
abuse. She also said
Sheen recently sent
her a text message
Brooke
that said: "I must
Mueller
t
40
March 10 • 2011
execute mark b [Mark Burg] like the
stoopid Jew pig that he is."
TMZ.com reports this message was
sent in February, after Sheen fired
Burg as manager. Sheen rehired Burg
around March 1 and Burg told TMZ.
corn: "Charlie Sheen's ex-publicist,
Stan Rosenfield, is Jewish. Charlie
Sheen's entertainment attorney, Jake
Bloom, is Jewish. Charlie Sheen's
litigation attorney, Marty Singer,
is Jewish. Charlie Sheen's divorce
attorney, Mark Gross, is Jewish. I've
known him for 13 years. I don't believe
that he actually sent that text [and]
for the record, since Brooke Mueller
is Jewish that would make Charlie
Sheen's two sons also Jewish."
I checked a bunch of public records
– and Mueller's mother Moira Fiore,
57, born Moira Roskin, is Jewish.
Brooke's late father, Allen Mueller,
from whom Moira was divorced long
before his death, was the son of two
Lutheran parents. I have no idea if
Brooke was raised in any faith. Brooke
has worked as a TV entertainment
reporter and is currently described
as a "real estate investor." Sheen and
Mueller wed in 2008 and filed for
divorce last year.
Going Green
Scheduled to open on Friday, March
11, is the animated 3-D film Mars
Needs Moms. Nine-year-old Milo
(voiced by Seth Green, 37) finds out
just how much he needs his mom
(Joan Cusack) when she's nabbed by
Martians who plan to steal her "mom-
ness" for their own young. His quest
to save his mom involves taking on
the alien leader (Mindy Sterling, 57).
Milo is aided by a tech-savvy,
underground earth-
man named Gribble
(Dan Fogler, 34).
Sterling is best known
as Frau Farbissina,
Dr. Evil's aide, in the
Austin Powers mov-
ies. Green played
Dr. Evil's son in the
Seth Green
Powers films.