Reviewer: Kristine Gotham
Venue: The Historic Masonic Temple of Bay City
The Vanishing Elephant Players, housed at the Historic Masonic Temple in Bay City, opened a three-day run of David Ives’ “Polish Joke” on Friday, July 12, 2024. With just 6 actors, playing a total of 26 characters, directors, Emma Gene-Pichan and Leon Kratz, created a world of one man longing to create a new cultural identity for himself, to no longer have to deal with “Fate”, simply because he “is Polish”.
Chey Maloczewski is Jasiu, a young Polish man, who longs to leave his identity behind and find a new culture to call his own. Jasiu is tired of the Polish jokes, “Did you hear about the Polish father who locked his keys in the car? It took him an hour to get his family out.” He is tired of traditions that no one else understands, for example, putting an egg and salt in your beer. He is tired of hearing the “Polish Gong”, ringing in his ears, symbolizing the feeling of hopelessness that is part of his cultural identity. And always being told that he experiences all of these things because he “is Polish”.
Chey is the ultimate example of someone who “leaves it all on the field”. She fully immerses herself in her character until you no longer see Chey, the young woman, but Jasiu, the emotionally distraught young Polish man.
Guiding Jasiu on his journey to understanding what it means to be polish is his godfather, Uncle Roman, played by Cameron Pichan. Cameron is excellent in his portrayal of a man who has accepted his lot in life and is determined to teach his young friend how to do the same. He offers Jasiu such sage advice as “remember that all Polish jokes are true”, and if you don’t want to be Polish all your life than “impersonate someone who isn’t Polish”. The Irish are a good choice, everyone loves the Irish, plus you can spell their names.
As Jasiu goes about trying to outrun his cultural identity, he meets a variety of characters, Polish and Irish both. These characters are deftly played by Jessica Calder, Alex Kolleth, Abigail Yearta and Jon Zdrojewski. These actors do an incredible job of not only transforming into many different personas, but pronouncing seemingly unpronounceable Polish language and names. They must have spent hours practicing to speak with such authenticity and speed! Kudos to Dialect Coach, Austin Butterfield.
This play is presented on a small stage with a minimal set that is transformed by moving a few set pieces and changing the blinds to represent the country being referenced. The actors flow seamlessly from one character to the next and interact with each other so fluidly that you don’t notice that one actor is more than one character. The seating is very close to the stage, and there is performance space on the floor near the audience, allowing for the audience to fully embrace the characters and Jasiu’s struggle.
As the end of the play nears, we find Jasiu speaking once again with Uncle Roman, who is approaching the end of his life. Roman asks about Jasiu’s life, and reminds him that no matter what we all have the same opportunity to live our life. We get to choose how we want to live it, remembering that the egg in the beer is for life and the salt is for tears.
Polish Joke is playing at the Historic Masonic Temple in Bay City again on Saturday, July 13 at 7 pm and Sunday, July 14 at 3 pm.