Review: 'THE CHOSEN' is a thoughtful look at friendship and choices By KAREN SHADE World Scene Writer 6/04/2005 Tulsa World (Final Home Edition) Page D10 of Arts People are never beyond the simple reminder to see the world through another's eyes or to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," although many of us might roll our eyes at such expressions that, unfortunately, seem to have become archaic and cliched.

Judah Hudson (left), Tom Berenson and Christopher Stefanic star in Heller Theater’s production of “The Chosen.” SHERRY BROWN / Tulsa World

But in Heller Theater's "The Chosen," honesty keeps any semblance of an old adage timeless and important in a story centered on the friendship of two young men and their relationships with their fathers.

"The Chosen" has a lot to do with choice. The play is set in an American-Jewish community, but maybe the title to the piece itself has as much to do with individual identity as it does the streams of Judaic philosophy.

A man named Reuven (Mark Albert) chooses to share a piece of his life with an audience about a time in his life when he chose to understand someone he once thought strange. It's a period of time in which he made choices that would change everything.

"Silence. Silence. For a word to be spoken, there must be silence, both before and after," Reuven says to open.

Silence and anything and everything to be understood through it is a recurring concept throughout the show.

"The world I grew up in was not one of silence," he says.

In 1944, Reuven Malter was a teenage boy living with his father, David Malter. War raged in Europe and at home as neighborhood baseball teams battled in the schoolyard. It is on the baseball diamond that young Reuven (Christopher Stefanic) and Danny Saunders (Judah Hudson) meet.

They are adversaries on opposite teams partly fueled by their views of what a good Jew should be. Reuven has been raised by his father (Ron Friedberg) to study the holy texts and worship in the synagogue, but he has also been encouraged to look beyond the sacred and embrace logic. Malter hopes his son will become a professor.

Five blocks away and in a different world, Danny has been brought up in the Hasidic tradition. As a young man, he wears payos (the long locks of hair near his ears) and black and white clothes. His father, Reb Saunders (Tom Berenson), is a tzaddik, considered a messenger rabbi among his followers.

After some taunting on both parts, young Reuven is prepared to knock a smug grin from Danny's face, but it's Danny at the bat who ends up putting the pitcher, Reuven, in the hospital.

Later, trying to understand his anger, Danny visits Reuven and apologizes. From there, the boys start the most important and trying friendship of their lives.

Director Julie Tattershall's cast tightens as "The Chosen" moves the boys from secondary school to college, and although the fathers never meet on stage, the parallels between the men are most vivid when the audience watches them in their own households as they interact with their sons.

Malter and young Reuven converse about the boy's new friendship and Danny's eagerness for new knowledge in books mostly forbidden by his father. Danny offers his father tea while his father says nothing and continues his reading. There is mostly silence between father Saunders and his son.

The alternating exhibit of each home and the occupants is a solid display of who each character is and just how distinct he is.

Important discoveries and events are merged into the story. Characters have strong reactions to the first news of the Holocaust and the soon-to-follow efforts to create a secular Israeli state in Palestine.

Reuven, the narrator, shares how these reactions drive apart the different thoughts in the Jewish community and how they are brought back together. The boys' friendship is not spared the trials of the world.

Strong material and a good script drives "The Chosen," based on a book written in 1967. The book's author, Chaim Potok, collaborated with playwright Aaron Posner to create the play, which had its debut in 1999.

And Berenson's presence elevates an already strong ensemble performance.

Devin Meadows' set is deceptively simple upon entering the small black box, but extremely effective when it's put to its multiple uses. The elevation that serves as the Saunders home is also used as a platform for Saunders' address to his synagogue.

Lighting designed by Frank Gallagher illuminates in the truest meaning of the word as Saunders is lit to perfection. A different, more sullen light fixes on Malter when he takes his turn on the stage to give a passionate speech endorsing Zionism, creating the state of Israel.

By the end of "The Chosen," young Reuven has made his choice, so has Danny; and the fathers each have decided what kind of relationships they will have with their sons. With a lot of good advice, Heller's final show of the season leaves spectators with a fine portrait of friendship and family that can exist anywhere and is not limited by politics, religion or language.

"The Chosen" continues its run 8 p.m. Thursday and will play Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for seniors and students.

Heller Theater is at 5328 S. Wheeling Ave. For more call 746-5065 or go to www.hellertheatre.com on the Internet.