by dan pine
staff writer
In the title character of “Dead Mother; or Shirley Not All in Vain,” playwright David Greenspan created the Jewish mother from hell.
Then, for good measure, he also threw in Dante, Alice B. Toklas and Moby Dick.
The play premiered off-Broadway in 1991 at New York’s Public Theater, with Greenspan directing and starring. Now “Dead Mother” makes its West Coast premiere at Traveling Jewish Theatre, in an updated version that runs through Feb. 17.
“I did a little revision,” the playwright said from his New York home. “I was out [in San Francisco] a few weeks ago, and we had a few days around the table to correct my typos.”
Traveling Jewish Theater collaborated with another local theater company, Thick Description, for the production. Tony Kelley, Thick Description artistic co-director and a friend of Greenspan’s, will direct. TJT regulars Aaron Davidman and Corey Fischer co-star.
“Dead Mother” is an ultra-dark farcical comedy about a Jewish gay man, the oppressive mother he does in, and her ghost, who returns to haunt and scorn her no-good son.
The play’s title character is loosely — make that extremely loosely — based on Greenspan’s mother, who died when he was 12.
“It’s the milieu of a Jewish family,” he said. “It reflects my experience growing up in a Jewish family with first generation parents as well as some old world uncles and aunts. I would say it has cultural inflections, as well as linguistic inversions, that would be recognizable to a Jewish audience.”
When “Dead Mother” opened 17 years ago, reviews were mixed. New York Times critic Frank Rich raked Greenspan and the play over the coals. The Village Voice, on the other hand, loved it.
As a veteran of the New York theater scene, Greenspan has developed a thick hide when it comes to critics. His many successes as actor, writer and director make up for any pans. His other plays include “Jack,” “2 Samuel 11, Etc.,” and “She Stoops to Comedy,” which earned him a 2003 Special Citation Obie Award.
He won an acting Obie last year in Terrence McNally’s “Some Men,” in which he played a Judy Garland-obsessed drag queen (he even got to sing “Over the Rainbow” on stage in a peach-colored dress). The New York Times praised the performance, calling Greenspan “an actor of uncommon gifts … Once seen –– perhaps experienced is a better word –– Mr. Greenspan is not forgotten.”
The transplanted New Yorker grew up in Beverly Hills. Although he did not have a religious upbringing, his home resonated with Jewish culture. The theater department at Beverly Hills High School got him interested in drama, and theater studies at U.C. Irvine cemented his commitment to a life in the theater.
His Jewish background continues to influence him. “It has had a deep impact on me. I use elements of humor you associate with a Jewish upbringing.”
In his new adaptations of Italian Renaissance plays, for example, Greenspan plays with language, sometimes adding a twist of a Yiddish accent. ”I have people saying things like ‘oy vey’ as a way of bringing it toward myself. It brings an immediacy even to a non-Jewish audience.”
“Dead Mother” draws on historical currents through the ages, from the ancient Greeks to modern English novelists.
One of these novelistic inspirations was James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” in which Leopold Bloom makes an odyssey of a single day. “I’m from L.A.,” Greenspan said. “[‘Dead Mother’] is parody using L.A. the way Joyce used Dublin.”
“Dead Mother; or Shirley Not All in Vain” plays 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays, Jan. 10 through Feb. 17 at Traveling Jewish Theater, 470 Florida St., S.F. Tickets: $18-$34. Information: (415) 522-0786.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California