NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
NEW SERIES: CATCH-UP Scenes from a Marriage, a five-part mini-series, premiered on HBO Max Sunday, Sept. 12. New episodes will be streamed on successive Sundays. The series is based on an acclaimed Ingmar Bergman Swedish TV mini-series (1973) of the same name. It was about the dissolution of a marriage over a 10-year period. The series was condensed as a film for American audiences and the film won many awards. Woody Allen has cited it as a major influence. The original Scenes starred two Berman “favorites”: Liv Ullman and Swedish Jewish actor Erland Josephson (1923-2012). Scenes was so well-received and so important to Bergman that
he made Saraband (2003), an acclaimed TV/film sequel about the divorced couple (Ullman and Josephson) and their adult children’s problems. It was Bergman’s last work. This is quite a legacy, and advance reviews almost all say that the HBO series doesn’t live up to that legacy. It stars Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac as Mira and Jonathan, an upper-middleclass American couple whose marriage dissolves over several years. The acting, critics say, is first rate and there are truly very good “fireworks” scenes. However, most reviewers say that changes Israeli director/writer Hagai Levi, 58 (In Treatment, The Affair) made to the original story are not interesting or illuminating. There is one potentially big change that caught my eye: Jonathan is Jewish (the Swedish husband was not). Daniel Fienberg, 55ish, the
James Wolk
Hollywood Reporter’s chief TV critic, writes: “[Levi] has also added a surface coat of Jewishness … the fact that Jonathan was once Orthodox is treated as an empty series of data points — a challah on a table in one scene, a kippah attached to his hair with bobby pins in another. At no point did that minor embellishment make me think, ‘Well, now, this is a tale for 2021’ in the way that changes to the economic circumstances, race or, particularly, sexuality might have
done.” Ordinary Joe, an NBC series, stars James Wolk, 36, as Joe Kimbreau, a guy who faces a pivotal decision after college. The decision could lead to three different lifepaths and the series follows all three possibilities — he could become a police officer, a music star (like his father) or a nurse. Veteran character actor David Warshowsky, 60, has a supporting role as Frank, Joe’s father. (Premieres Sept. 20, 10 p.m.). Wolk, as I have noted in this column before, is a handsome guy who was born and raised in Farmington Hills. He was raised a Reform Jew and emceed at bar and bat mitzvahs. A U-M grad, he has been steadily working in film and TV since 2008. Career highlights include a recurring role on Mad Men and a starring role on Zoo, a CBS drama (2015-2017). COURTESY OF STEVE SUSSMAN
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BY SAMHSA VIA WIKIPEDIA
ARTS&LIFE
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JEWISH PERFORMERS Sussman, an architect, sits on the Village Players Safety Committee made up of Village Players members, including two physicians. They have worked tirelessly to implement safety measures such as requiring that the cast and crew are fully vaccinated. In addition, the first row of seats has been removed in the auditorium to provide greater spacing and separation between the audience and onstage actors. There are no afterglows or gatherings, and audience members can greet the cast only outside following the show. The theater is cleaned and sanitized after each performance. Besides COVID protocols to consider, rehearsals had to be changed to accommodate the Jewish holidays for the two Jewish actors in the cast of 25 — Sussman and Alan Binkow of Troy.
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“Because our director, Holly Conroy, moved around our dress rehearsal and brush-up rehearsal, I was able to attend services at Temple Shir Shalom,” says Binkow, who plays Wabash, the stuttering tailor. “It’s so great to be back on stage. It’s been 18 long months without theater, but I hope we are here to stay.” Sussman’s family and in-laws enjoyed Rosh Hashanah dinner outdoors at his home in Bloomfield Hills. When Sussman wasn’t onstage rehearsing his role of Richard Burbage, he was choreographing the three swordfight scenes, including one with Sussman as the dueling theater owner. “While fencing is very physical, it also has a mental component that they call ‘physical chess’ because you’re always plotting moves and planning your strategy,” says Sussman,
Alan Binkow and Steve Sussman
who was on the fencing team at Michigan State University as a freshman. He also volunteers once a week as the beginner foil fencing coach at the Honor Guards Fencing Club in Auburn Hills. “There is a big difference between the sport of fencing and sword-fighting on stage. In fencing, the goal is to hit your opponent. In theater, it’s the exact opposite. With stage combat, the number one thing is that both actors are safe. It’s kind of like a dance number where it’s choreographed so
you know each other’s movements while making it look realistic and exciting,” Sussman adds. In rehearsals, they practiced with wooden swords. In the performances, they use steel rapiers. “Just like the Three Musketeers,” says Sussman. “It looks great on stage. Shakespeare in Love is a very entertaining production with period costumes, lots of humor and romance, live renaissance musicians and singers, a marvelously talented cast and even a dog. It’s got everything.”
