‘Oy’ a clever display of Jewish humor, metaphysics
The Jewish contribution to Western culture is incalculable. For one thing, Jews gave us the most famous story in all of literature, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Another contribution is a very particular sort of humor, whether found in Woody Allen movies, Philip Roth novels, or the stand-up comedy of Lenny Bruce or Jerry Seinfeld.
Jewish metaphysics and Jewish humor are both on full display in Rich Orloff’s collection of comic sketches, “Oy,” now playing at Aux Dog Theatre. In fact, the Adam and Eve story provides the content for one of the sketches — however, in this revisionary version, God is a woman, Eve is the first human, and Adam is the blunderer who ate the apple.
Before each of these 13 sketches, an attractive women — a sort of Jewish Vanna White — enters the theater with a large placard; on one side is a Yiddish word, for instance “shikse,” which means a woman who is not Jewish. On the other side of the placard is the title of the sketch we are about to see. Before exiting, the woman deposits her placard on a stand where it remains visible throughout the next sketch.
The sketch built around the word “shikse” is called “Come Light the Menorah.” Two sisters meet to light the menorah candles on Hanukkah. One sister has had three husbands leave her for “shikses” and is despondent. The other sister nervously confesses that she is a lesbian. Shockingly, her conservative sister is delighted; it will make her so much more interesting to have a gay sister. But her delight turns to disappointment when she learns that her sister’s girlfriend is Krista Christianson — a shikse.
That fairly typifies the type of humor you will encounter. As for the metaphysics, the most typical sketch is titled, “Can This Marriage Be Saved.” In the Hebrew Scriptures, Israel is described as the bride of God. This idea is the premise of this surprisingly profound sketch, in which we see humanity, represented by actress Abriana Lavalley, as the plaintiff in a case for divorce against God. This takes place in a divorce court and plays on the Hebrew tradition of arguing forcefully with God, as both Abraham and Moses do in the Torah. Orloff clearly knows the Bible and Jewish tradition very well, and the piece is surprisingly rich in metaphysical ideas.
In other sketches, Albert Einstein is unable to please his Jewish mother, while in another a woman can’t get her new and very kosher boyfriend to take an interest in her sexually — until, that is, she is able to seduce him with such dirty words as “cheeseburger,” “shellfish,” “beef stroganoff” and “Reuben sandwich.”
Most of the sketches are funny and entertaining, but a few miss the mark. In “Oy” three old men sit in a steam room and complain, but the only word uttered in the piece is “oy.” Unfortunately, much of this seemed just vague grumbling and not rooted in Jewish character.
However, if you can’t get to the Borscht Belt anytime soon, and you are a fan of Jewish humor, this is your show.
“Oy” is playing through March 5 at Aux Dog Theatre, 3011 Monte Vista NE, Albuquerque. Go to auxdog.com or call 254-7716 for reservations.