Theater Review - Peter and the Wolf (and Me): In the fold

It’s smart for Jewish Theatre of the South to remount its 1997 production of Ari Roth’s Born Guilty in repertory with the playwright’s new work, Peter and the Wolf (and Me). Roth penned the new play as very much a follow-up to the first, and seeing Peter “cold” would be absolutely bewildering.

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Peter would be dizzyingly complex even without its relationship to Born Guilty, Roth’s adaptation of Peter Sichrovsky’s nonfiction book of the same name about Germans and Austrians confronting — and denying — the legacy of the Holocaust. Peter begins with a post-show “talkback” after a production of Born Guilty, and we notice that the “real” Sichrovsky (David de Vries) proves more abrasive and politically incorrect than his American “Adapter” (Chris Moses as a fictionalized version of Roth himself).

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After the Adapter’s relationship with Sichrovsky sours, the Jewish Austrian journalist shocks friends on two continents by joining the political party of Jorge Haider (Dolph Amick), a slick politician prone to Newt Gingrich tactics as well as coded anti-Semiticism. In close-up, Sichrovsky’s political and personal opportunism might resemble the moral calculus of All the King’s Men. Roth complicates the action by including the Adapter’s efforts to rediscover his family’s European roots while taking the temperature of contemporary European politics.

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Perhaps the play’s most intriguing aspects explore the knotty relationship between the Adapter and Sichrovsky. De Vries conveys the intimidating intellect that makes Sichrovsky both a role model and antagonist for the Adapter, whom Moses presents as constantly questioning himself and trying to chart the right moral course. Sichrovsky even serves as an “imaginary” presence, voicing the Adapter’s internal skepticism when pointing out phony shows of piety or tolerance. Sichrovsky even complains that the Adapter is inventing scenes that never happened while we’re watching them, offering a postmodern dramatization of the relationship between life and artifice.

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The supporting actors switch with ease between multiple roles, and director Joseph Megel helps sharpen the relationships and clarify some of the play’s thematic density. But despite an admirable willingness to engage with so many contemporary issues, from politics to art, Peter feels convoluted and in need of further streamlining. With so many scenes, characters, ideas and tonal shifts, the experience of watching Peter and the Wolf (and Me) is like trying to push through a narrative thicket, one with thorny insights sharp enough to draw blood.

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Peter and the Wolf (and Me). Plays through March 4 in repertory with Born Guilty. $18-$35. Wed.-Thurs., 8 p.m.; Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. Jewish Theatre of the South, 5342 Tilly Mill Road. 770-395-2654. www.jplay.org.