Fair Winds and Winds of War

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[avatar user=”Joel Benjamin” size=”96″ align=”left”] Joel Benjamin, Critic[/avatar]

The Theater for the New City is hosting Fair Winds and Winds of War, written and directed by Barbara Kahn (co-directed by Christopher Bello), a very personal look at the earth-shattering events of 1939 in Europe and their emotional toll.

Winds focuses on Malka Landau (Stalina Huberchenko), a young Polish émigré who managed in 1939 to get out of Poland, forced by her family to emigrate to America before things got worse for Jews.  She is living in Greenwich Village with her cousin Rebecca “Becky” Landau (Jamie Coffey) who resents the intrusion, family be damned.

Malka is not adjusting well, obsessing guiltily about leaving her family in Warsaw, particularly her beloved brother Yakov (Danny Epstein).  She also suffers from a fear that the Nazis are omnipresent, a fear enhanced by radio broadcasts by the German American Bund and the strident anti-Semitic ramblings of a Father Coughlin-like priest.  Anyone would be disturbed by this cacophony, only slightly ameliorated by the upcoming World’s Fair in Flushing, New York.

Sitting forlornly on a bench in Washington Square she meets the outgoing chanteuse, Bernice Clark (Rebekah D. Wilson).  Bernice gradually softens anxious Malka with kindness, generosity and an invitation to hear her make a recording.  Bernice, a strong, talented Black woman, becomes a stalwart friend to Malka, partly because Malka hasn’t been indoctrinated into America’s culture of racial prejudice.

Malka also runs into her old girlfriend from Poland, Tamara “Tami” Brant (Jenna Levere) who, unlike Malka, has immersed herself into life in New York City. They resume their affair, Malka leaving her cousin’s apartment to live with Tami, helping them both to remember happier times in their homeland.

Despite the sudden, startling blitzkrieg invasion of Poland, Malka still yearns to see her brother Yakov and soon learns his fate.

These complex relationships are brought together under the narration of Jack (Robert Maisonett), Rebecca’s grandson who speak from the present reading excerpts of his grandmother’s diary, commenting on the characters, editorializing and otherwise binding all the disparate characters and their unrest.

Kahn has a good ear for the subtleties of each character and the period.  However, Fair Winds doesn’t handle all the major themes smoothly and the use of the narrator sometimes feels like a way to make up for her storytelling shortcomings, although Maisonett is an accomplished enough actor to make it work.

Wilson’s singing needs more power.  She is obviously a good stylist, but appears to be holding back.  Huberchenko, a Ukrainian native, as the emotional center of the play, convinces with her sincerity.  She does pep up a bit when singing a duet version of what may be called the show’s theme song, “Bei Mir Bist Du Schön,” a song popularized by the Andrews Sisters.

Huberchenko, a Ukrainian native, as the emotional center of the play, convinces with her sincerity.

The very detailed, but slightly bedraggled set by Jason Sturm divides the stage into discrete playing areas, including Washington Square where the lone tree is in the shape of a menorah.  Alexander Bartenieff’s lighting helps focus attention and Billy Little’s costumes has just the right period feel.

Far Winds and Winds of War takes world-shaking events and effectively funnels them into the lives of its victims.

Fair Winds and Winds of War (through March 24, 2024)

Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, in Manhattan

For tickets, call 212-254-1109 or visit http://www.theaterforthenewcity.net

Running time: two hours including one intermission