One of the advantages of being chosen is that one doesn't have to banter with choice. Human nature being what it is, however, choice is one of the painful freedoms that education enforces. In Chaim Potok's 1967 novel, The Chosen, adapted for the theatre by Potok and Aaron Posner, Daniel (Adam Silverstein), the son of Reb Saunders (Robert Grossman), a Hasidic rabbi and a righteous man, must face the wrath of his father when his liberal education, gained in the forbidden closet of secular literature, leads him to question the teachings of the Talmud. Under the influence of David Malter (John Herzog), a man of deep beliefs and broad education, Danny finds the questions posed by secular philosophy more engaging in the modern world forbidden to him by his father.
The action takes place in the years 1944-'48, prior to the founding of Israel, when religious Jewry and Zionism were at opposite ends of the religious spectrum; the faithful considered Zionists to be Christian Jews. Young Danny and Reuven Malter (Nicholas Downs) are brought together by an errant baseball and, despite sectarian differences, become close friends. An interesting transference occurs when Reuven and Danny each come under the influence of the other's father, both finding the code to their spiritual development.
Silverstein is engaging as the serious but troubled student of his unyielding father, a reluctant chip off the old block, brought to questioning by the openness of Reuven, played simply and cleanly by Downs, and the mentorship of Reuven's father, in a warm and rounded turn by Herzog. Grossman takes possession of the stage and the play in an absorbing performance that sucks up the light and the heat in the cold, schoolroom-type auditorium of the Miles Memorial Playhouse and returns it as a compelling character study that is bigger than the play.
In David Ellenstein's premiere West Coast production the material is esoteric and has small universal appeal, further hampered by the tight staging (cluttered set design by Esquire Jauchem) and rudimentary lighting (Michael Eddy). The essentially presentational structure of Posner's play dries much of the emotion out of the story. Robert Pescovitz, playing the older Reuven, while pleasant, is there only to call the plays, a somewhat unnecessary narrator of a tale that tells itself.
"The Chosen," presented by Los Angeles Repertory Company and West Coast Jewish Theatre at Miles Memorial Playhouse, 1130 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica. Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 & 7 p.m. Sept. 12-Oct. 13. $25. (800) 595-4849.