Theater Review : Lively Theological Debate in a Schematic ‘Disputation’

“The Disputation,” at the University of Judaism’s Gindi Auditorium, is a lively theological debate posing as a play.

*

Set in Barcelona in 1263, this dramatization by Hyam Maccoby and Mark Kemble of a book by Maccoby probes the differing philosophies of Judaism and Christianity as represented by Rabbi Moses ben Nachman (Alexander Zale) and Pablo Christiani, a former Jew turned Dominican friar (James Michael Connor).

How the debate applies to today’s many flavors of Judaism and Christianity is a question stimulating enough to warrant further discussion (where are the ecumenical post-performance panels when you really need them?).

The rabbi has been summoned to the court of King James of Aragon (Neil Vipond). The court hopes the friar will argue him into intellectual submission. Once the rabbi converts, many of his fellow Jews will follow him, and the distant Pope will be impressed.

It’s hardly a fair fight. The Christians have all the power. The king pledges to protect the rabbi from reprisals, and his chief spiritual adviser (William Dennis Hunt) is also tolerant, to a point, but the queen (Catherine McGoohan) believes the Jews are satanic and should be wiped out.

Perhaps to compensate for the historically stacked deck against the Jews, Maccoby and Kemble stacked the dramatic deck against the Christians. Zale’s rabbi is wise, brave and passionate, with a devoted daughter (Jeanie Hackett) at his side; Connor’s friar is smug, glum, cold, and makes it clear, even before the disputation begins, that his main interest isn’t the logic of his arguments but in being on the winning side. The queen, so paranoid about black magic, almost seems a witch herself.

The play’s saving grace is the character of the king, a genuinely open-minded man who relishes free-flowing debate. He’s not as broad-minded in his personal life; in the first scene, a bishop who had criticized the king’s dalliance with his mistress (Tamra Naggar) is separated from his tongue. But this occurs before we even meet the king. Once he emerges, we forget about his earlier brutality. Vipond, with an irrepressible gleam in his eye, has remarkable comic timing.

The debaters deliver many of the arguments straight to the audience in Robert Robinson’s staging. But within the narrative, it’s not clear if there was an audience, other than the people we see on stage. The larger society is represented only by a wealthy Jew (Jack Heller) who balances loyalties between his faith and the king and wastes stage time in an unlikely wooing of the rabbi’s daughter.

For those who saw this play at the Tiffany Theatre last year, this is a revised version in a larger theater, with only one actor remaining from the earlier cast, but still with a fairly bare set.

* “The Disputation,” University of Judaism Gindi Auditorium, 15600 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles. Thursdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 8:30 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Ends Nov. 19. $23-$28. (310) 476-9777 ext. 201/203. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.