THEATER REVIEW : ‘Teibele and Her Demon’: A Prince of a Play

SAN DIEGO — In fairy tales, princesses who kiss frogs and beauties who love beasts rejoice when the creatures are transformed into charming princes. Now imagine a beauty who grieves when her bad beast turns into a nice young man and you get a whiff of the darkly humorous “Teibele and Her Demon.”

Blackfriars Theatre’s exquisite production of love and illusion by Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer and Eve Friedman transforms San Diego’s downtown Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre into a small Jewish shtetl of 1880.

Teibele (McKerrin Kelly) lives a lonely life. Because she was deserted by her husband, and neither divorced nor widowed, Jewish law forbids her to remarry.

She takes refuge in fantasy, reading and dreaming about demons. A poor teacher’s assistant, Alchonon (Richard Perloff), discovers her obsession with spirits, disguises himself as a demon and seduces her.

The problem? She falls madly in love with the demon but continues to despise Alchonon. And when Alchonon as demon forces her to marry Alchonon the man (after forging a death certificate for the absent husband), she is miserably unhappy and continues to pine for her lost demon lover.

What makes this delicate work pulse is the strength of Blackfriars’ fine acting ensemble under the subtle and sensitive direction of artistic director Ralph Elias. Kelly reprises the splendid performance of Teibele that she gave when the company first did the show in 1990. At once delicate and wild-looking, the slender Kelly smolderingly suggests Teibele’s haunted and hungry nature.

Also remarkable is Perloff’s stunning Clark Kent-to-Superman transition, as he goes from the stooped, almost stupid-looking Alchonon to the fiery, irresistible demon lover.

The show’s modest flaws lie in the design arena. Beeb Salzer’s sets--screens draped with cloth and little suggestive drawings--are a good idea that get lost on the Hahn’s wide stage; J.A. Roth’s uninspired lighting fails to compensate.

* “Teibele and Her Demon,” Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre, 444 4th Ave., San Diego. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Ends Nov. 21. $12.50-$20. (619) 234-9583. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.