The West Boca Theatre Company’s current production of My Name Is Asher Lev earns a unique and high compliment: of all the plays I’ve written about in the past 5ish months (my, how time flies), it’s the only one that I left actively inspired to create.
My Name Is Asher Lev reminds me of my all-time favorite, The Glass Menagerie. It’s a memory play chronicling the emotional flight of a young artist from his family, and one on the basis of an author’s tormented personal experiences, if this time an author once removed.
The script was written in 2009 by Aaron Posner but is an adaptation of a 1972 novel by Chaim Potok. He, like Asher, spent much of his youth torn between his conservative Hasidic Jewish upbringing and his irresistible artistic drive.
The climax of My Name Is Asher Lev reveals a painting named “Brooklyn Crucifixion” by Potok.