Los Angeles Times
April 26, 2005 Tuesday
Home Edition
THEATER REVIEW;
Personal horror;
An eyewitness account of the Armenian holocaust is skillfully
detailed in ‘I Ask You’ at the Alex Theatre.
by Philip Brandes, Special to The Times
The horrors of events like the Armenian holocaust are so vast that
it’s hard to imagine them from a distance as anything other than a
numbing abstraction. It’s primarily through the stories of survivors
that casualty statistics hit home with the immediacy and intensity of
personal experience — qualities vividly evoked in “I Ask You, Ladies
and Gentlemen” at Glendale’s Alex Theatre.
Author Leon Surmelian’s memoir, a harrowing account of the World War
I-era ethnic cleansing of Turkey’s Armenian population, has been
skillfully adapted for Cornerstone Theatre Company by Yehuda Hyman.
Created as part of the Cornerstone’s youth-focused educational
program, the piece does not entail the level of community
participation for which the company is best known, but it’s a
powerful and educational outreach effort nonetheless.
In staging this narration-heavy chronicle of Surmelian’s boyhood
ordeal — the brutal murder of his family and his own narrow escape
— director Christopher Liam Moore artfully extends the piece beyond
just storytelling.
Playing Surmelian as an adult narrator and at various times between
the ages of 8 and 17, solo actor Ludwig Manukian proves a perfect fit
for the role. His boyish face and exuberance convincingly evoke
Leon’s shattered innocence and courage as he endures the idyllic,
multiethnic seaside village of his childhood torn apart by rabid
Turkish nationalism in 1911.
Piercing details such as watching his female relatives sewing poison
tablets into their dresses to save themselves from violation stand
out starkly against the earlier happy memories included in Hyman’s
adaptation.
The minimal backdrop — an illuminated map of Leon’s homeland —
serves as both information resource and backlit screen for Michelle
Zamora’s inventive shadow puppets. Composer John Bilezikjian provides
near-continuous accompaniment on a variety of string and percussion
instruments.
Transcending the specifics of race and history, Surmelian’s memoir
calls out for universal tolerance, longing for a time when, “as
children we spoke the same true language, although the words were
different.” It’s a message that might sound Pollyannaish from less
authentic voices, but Surmelian earned the right to every syllable.
*
`I Ask You, Ladies and Gentlemen’
Where: Alex Theatre, 216 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale
When: 8 p.m. today and Wednesday
Ends: Wednesday
Price: $10
Contact: (818) 243-2539 or
Running time: 1 hour, 5 minutes