Culture and Identity: Desert Ensemble Theatre Goes Out With a Wildly Successful Production of ‘Knife to the Heart’

I went to the Palm Springs Cultural Center for Knife to the Heart, Desert Ensemble Theatre’s final production ever, feeling very low. The company was just getting started, really, when I began writing critiques for the Independent, and I have watched the company grow over the years; they will be missed.

But after talking to artistic director Jerome Elliott Moskowitz and executive director Shawn Abramowitz, I am feeling better—more on that later. The production of Knife to the Heart helped my mood, too.

The play takes place in the present day, and the stage’s set is the living room of a Dallas condo owned by Julie Ann and Marshall Katz (played by Jessica Lenz and Jonathan Brett). The couple is planning to have sex, as they want to have a baby … and the time for that is, shall we say, ripe.

Almost immediately, Marshall’s mom comes busting in. Rhonda Katz (played by Bonnie Gilgallon, my fellow theater reviewer here at the Independent!) is a surprisingly complex character who’s not terribly sympathetic at first. Marshall’s dad (we never meet him) has created a highly successful chain of natural-food stores, and this is where Marshall toils, instead of pursuing his own dream career. Marshall’s older brother, whom we also never meet, is often referred to, as is his brood of apparently wild children. Rhonda has high hopes that Julie Ann and Marshall’s future baby will be more acceptable.

Well, it turns out that Julie Ann is already pregnant. She goes through the agonies of all-day (not just morning) sickness, and then suffers the discomfort of swelling, as the play skips on through various scenes.

Just when you think you have met everyone who matters to the plot, Deacon (Ricky Luna) arrives. He makes a flamboyant entrance, wearing sparkly running shoes and outrageous clothes, and flaps around the room creating a ruckus wherever he goes. He is a friend and co-worker of Julie Ann.

I won’t reveal all the surprises and clever twists that lie ahead for the audience, but it must be explained that the title has to do with the plot, and the whole thing relies on the revelation that the Katz family is Jewish. Julie Ann, who married into this family, is not. She is in complete ignorance of the fact that Rhonda has blithely planned a traditional bris, or circumcision, of the baby after his birth, with a whole ceremony and a fancy reception afterward. Deacon helpfully supplies graphic information about the procedure for Julie Ann on her computer, and she, of course, reacts with complete horror. She confronts Marshall, and the debate is on: Will they or won’t they do the bris?

The most important part of the play is Rhonda’s expression of the importance of Judaism, and how she and others have over-protected Julie Ann and Marshall’s generation. “Judaism,” she firmly states, “is deep inside of you.” She talks about her own experience of knowing Holocaust survivors, and shares a deeply affecting story that will give you goosebumps about how a relative taught her math using the numbers that were tattooed on the inside of her wrist. She explains why she over-protected her son: “I didn’t want you to have nightmares like I did.”

Rhonda’s unhappiness and “emptiness,” it turns out, runs deep. We find out more about her life, and it changes our feelings about her—and the whole play. She tells the story of her sons’ histories, and how she kept secrets to avoid hurting the family. But, as it is pointed out, “keeping secrets hurts everyone.”

The director and co-author (with Christian McLaughlin) is Stan Zimmerman. His name might be familiar as a writer for Gilmore Girls, Roseanne, The Golden Girls and the Brady Bunch movies. From a list like this, you might get the impression that he has created a funny and sweet kind of show—and to an extent, you would be right; it could be labeled “cute.” But what you might not expect are the deeper and darker investigations into the meaning of being Jewish in the present day, with the cloud of the Holocaust still hanging over everyone, whether you are Jewish or not.

It’s a great choice for DET’s final play. When I chatted with Jerome Elliott Moskowitz before the show, he was full of enthusiasm for his future. He talked about getting back to doing his cabaret music, a career which he has basically put on hold for the last seven years or so to concentrate on the needs of the theater company. “Artistically, everything has been at a high level this year,” he told me. “Seven out of fifteen of our actors this year were new!”

Shawn Abramowitz, who is looking forward to returning to his own paused acting career, pointed out that the DET’s Internship program, for which it became widely known, will transfer over to CVRep. Desert Ensemble Theatre’s legacy will very much live on.

So … will Julie Ann and Marshall have the bris? You’ll have to see the play to find out!

Desert Ensemble Theatre’s production of Knife to the Heart will be performed at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday; and 2 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, through Sunday, April 19, at the Palm Springs Cultural Center, at 2300 E. Baristo Road, in Palm Springs. Tickets are $44.20. For tickets or more information, call 760-565-2476, or visit www.desertensembletheatre.org.