····

Theatre Jacksonville’s Handle with Care

December 8, 2013
by
3 mins read

Theatre Jacksonville opened its final show of 2013 with Jason Odell Williams romantic comedy Handle With Care. This is the North Florida premier of this play and in fact the New York Off Broadway opening is in previews right now for a December 15th debut. Tony Award Winner Carol Lawrence (from West Side Story) is the featured actress for the NYC opening.

The play is set in an older motel room, clean, but with dated furnishings and a steam radiator, in Goodview, Virginia, a suburb of Roanoke. The opening scene has a young Jewish Israeli woman, Ayelet, who speaks almost no English, in a conversation with a DHL delivery man, Terrence about a lot box containing the dead body of her grandmother, Edna. Of course, they do not have a meeting of the minds since neither can communicate. Terrance calls up his longtime best friend Josh, who happens to be Jewish, for help to talk with this confused girl, but unfortunately when Josh arrives the only two words he can recall for his childhood Hebrew lessons are ‘Shalom’ and ‘Manischewitz.’ Josh and Ayelet use sign language, hand gestures, and a Hebrew/English dictionary to somewhat communicate. Meanwhile, Terrance has been convinced to call the police to find the truck that has the coffin with Edna’s body, due to be shipped back to Israel.

As the first scene ends, as an audience two questions came to mind. What were Ayelet and Edna doing in America? How did Edna die?

Now we have already established that our visitors do not speak English, so it is somewhat of a shock when we see Edna and Ayelet arrive at this motel the day before in a flashback scene and they are speaking English. Well, of course, if they spoke Hebrew a great portion of the audience would not have been able to understand the storyline. We just pretended we had one of those new voice activated tablets that could translate instantly from Hebrew to English. We learned from grandma Edna that she has planned this trip with her granddaughter to help her get over a recent romantic breakup in Israel. Ah, but later, we learn the secret reason for the trip to America, and specifically the State of Virginia.

Pages: 1 2 3

Related Posts

Dick Kerekes & Leisla Sansom Latest posts

The Dual Critics of EU Jacksonville have been reviewing plays together for the past nine years. Dick Kerekes has been a critic since 1980, starting with The First Coast Entertainer and continuing as the paper morphed into EU Jacksonville. Leisla Sansom wrote reviews from time to time in the early 80s, but was otherwise occupied in the business world. As a writing team, they have attended almost thirty Humana Festivals of New America Plays at Actors Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky, and many of the annual conferences sponsored by the American Theatre Critics Association, which are held in cities throughout the country.

They have reviewed plays in Cincinnati, Chicago, Miami, Sarasota, Minneapolis, Orlando, New York, Philadelphia, Sarasota, San Francisco, Shepherdstown, and The Eugene O’Neill Center in Waterford, Massachusetts. They currently review about one hundred plays annually in the North Florida area theaters, which include community, college, university, and professional productions.

  1. FOOTLOOSE AT THE ALHAMBRA
  2. LOVE, SEX AND THE I.R.S at the ALHAMBRA
  3. EXIT STRATEGY – A PHASE EIGHT THEATER COMPANY REVIEW
  4. CINDERELLA at the ALHAMBRA

Current Issue

Where to Find FOLIO

Recent Posts

SUBMIT EVENTS

Submit Events

Advertisements

Sing Out Loud Festival

Date

Title

Current Month

Follow FOLIO!

Previous Story

GIANTS ATTACK BIRMINGHAM'S BLITZ LATE IN 2013 HOME OPENER

Next Story

Trinity Christian 3A State Champions

Latest from Dual Critics

FOOTLOOSE AT THE ALHAMBRA

“Footloose” opened at the Alhambra Dinner Theatre on October 22 and will remain on stage through November 22, 2020. The Dual Critics of EU Jacksonville – Dick Kerekes & Leisla Sansom – did not review the opening of this production, which was sold out before it even opened! Looks like

LOVE, SEX AND THE I.R.S at the ALHAMBRA

ALHAMBRA THEATRE AND DINING REVIEW The Alhambra Dinner Theatre is staging “Love, Sex and the IRS,” a farce that plays out at whirlwind speed. It opened on September 30, 2020 and will remain through October 18, to be followed by “Footloose” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The play, written by

EXIT STRATEGY – A PHASE EIGHT THEATER COMPANY REVIEW

Phase Eight Theater Company Delivers Excellent Acting with Superb Direction and Performances Phase Eight brought the Jacksonville premiere of “Exit Strategy” to the stage on October 3, 2020 to an enthusiastic audience. The company, known for provocative productions, was founded several years ago by JaMario Stills, a Douglas Anderson School

CINDERELLA at the ALHAMBRA

The Dual Critics review of “Cinderella” at Alhambra Theatre & Dining find it to be “A lively heartfelt charmer.” The Alhambra Theatre opened “Cinderella,” a long-awaited summer musical on June 11th, 2020, which remains on stage through July 26th. The music is by Richard Rogers, the lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein

FROM THE ARCHIVES: QUILTERS AT PLAYERS BY THE SEA IN 2002  

Reviewed by Dick Kerekes and originally published in EU JACKSONVILLE in 2002 As theatres are closed throughout the world because of the current pandemic crisis, the Dual Critics along with many others, are revisiting and republishing some of their previous work. The musical “Quilters,” was staged at Players By the
July 5th Cleanup
GoUp

Don't Miss

EXIT STRATEGY – A PHASE EIGHT THEATER COMPANY REVIEW

Phase Eight Theater Company Delivers Excellent Acting with Superb Direction

LOVE QUEST at THEATRE JACKSONVILLE

A Romantic Comedy is part of the Historic Theatre’s 100th