Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man! OFF-BROADWAY REVIEWS

NY TIMES
VILLAGE VOICE
S & C
TIME OUT
AP

Opening Night:: March 14, 2014
Closing:: April 5, 2014

Theater: The Chocolate Factory / 5-49 49th Ave, New York, New York, 11101

Synopsis:

A new adaptation of one of the central plays of Yiddish history. Apostate, believer, lover, teacher – Uriel Acosta is all of them. And he is too much for the Jews of Amsterdam in the 17th century. When they excommunicate him a struggle ensues in the soul of every thinking, feeling being. Uriel challenges us all.

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NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man!

A Heretic and Hero Speaks in Many Tongues - ‘Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man!’ Recalls a Jewish Freethinker
Ben Brantley

March 25, 2014: You can tell that the conversation had being going on for a long time before you arrived at this party. I mean, a really long time — weeks, months, maybe years. Yet the highly animated people in residence at the Chocolate Factory in Long Island City, Queens, show no signs of fatigue. And though you’re not quite sure what they’re talking about, it’s hard not to catch their excitement. That’s the experience of walking in on Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man!, the latest installment of Target Margin Theater’s exploration of Yiddish theater and a show that begins in mid-gabfest, with all the cast members talking at once. The first words that I was able to hear clearly: “You want it to be simple. It’s not that simple.” That is definitely an understatement.
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VILLAGE VOICE REVIEW OF Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man!

A Real-Life Apostate Drawn in Thick Campy Strokes in Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man!
Molly Grogan

March 26, 2014: Jewish history is the story of the underdog, so perhaps it’s natural that the characters in Target Margin Theater’s latest explorations in Yiddish drama bear some resemblance to the animated canine superhero, or any standard issue DC Comics defender. With capes trailing and blue spandex blazing, TMT flies up, up, and away into mock-heroic metaphor with the campy Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man!, which finishes off the second season of Beyond the Pale, a project of almost biblical proportions, with 23 productions in two years. The actual Acosta was a 17th-century Portuguese Christian and Rationalist who converted to Judaism, was excommunicated for his radical views, recanted, committed suicide, and wound up a stock figure of Yiddish theater claimed and contested by rival actors. But his significance soars Superman-like over us in this 70-minute, go-go-booted exodus from the philosophical high ground of a real-life apostate to the murkier marshland of his numerous fictionalized representations.
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STAGE AND CINEMA REVIEW OF Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man!

“Uriel Acosta: I Want That Man!”at The Chocolate Factory Theater
Daniel Glenn

March 25, 2014: For as long as religious authorities have tried to police minds, the question has been asked: “Why is God letting me think these things if I'm not allowed to?” Uriel Acosta, a Jewish rebel in 17th century Amsterdam, posed this and other questions at the risk of his life. An adaptation from “myriad literary and historical sources,” this production features four actors sharing a variety of characters in a high-energy, inventive, collage-like depiction of an iconoclastic thinker. Styles and forms are cycled through at a rapid pace. The actors parody melodrama or strike a tableau, then drop character and mumble about where to go get a snack. Old texts are translated into modern slang or broken up into a kind of poignant blackout poetry. And throughout it all, musical interludes and rock star moments bubble up infectiously.
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