Sarasota’s Florida Studio Theatre stages ‘The God of Isaac’

It’s called a comedy. But director Kate Alexander said that description may give audiences an imperfect idea about what kind of play “The God of Isaac” is.

“I think it’s a comedy with heart,” she said. “It’s light and it’s funny, but what you come away with is its emotions.”

Alexander’s staging “The God of Isaac” opens Friday at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota.

Despite the Scriptural tone of the title, “The God of Isaac” has a more-or-less contemporary setting. The title character is Isaac Adams, a second-generation American in his 30s who’s looking back on his adult life. He had never given much thought to his Jewishness until neo-Nazis threaten to march to his hometown, Skokie, Ill., in the late 1970s. That threat propels his years-long quest to find out what it means to be a Jew. The quest has negative consequences to his career and marriage, but ends in satisfying revelations.

“It’s a coming-of-maturity story, as opposed to a coming-of-age story,” Alexander said. “Coming of age is abandoning your roots and deciding who you are. Coming of maturity is about reconnecting.”

Chicago playwright James Sherman, who’s probably best known for the much sillier comedy “Beau Jest,” mixes Isaac’s negotiations with his Jewish heritage with references to classic films. Isaac pictures himself or his loved ones as characters from familiar movies, but twists the dialogue to reflect his burgeoning awareness of his Jewishness. In a “Grapes of Wrath” sequence, Tom Joad tells his mother he’ll be there whenever hungry kids are in need of a delicatessen. So there are some jokes to go along with the story’s heart and ideas.

Isaac’s in his early 30s as the play opens. The action of the play takes him back a decade earlier, to the real-life event in Skokie, a largely Jewish suburb of Chicago. Nazis announced plans to march in World War II-style uniforms through the village, which was home to thousands of Holocaust survivors.

But the FST production doesn’t emphasize the era, Alexander said. It’s obviously set in the ’70s and ’80s, but it’s not a period piece.

The actor who plays Isaac has to carry a lot of the weight of this show, and for this production, Alexander said, FST is thrilled with Sid Solomon, in his first role with the company.

“We auditioned him in New York and he was just stellar,” she said.

Others in the cast are Kevin Cristaldi, Eric Hoffmann, Marina Re and Rachel Moulton, all of whom will be familiar to FST audiences, and newcomer Rebeca Miller.

Despite the ethnicity of its central character, and the Jewish tone to much of Sherman’s humor, Alexander emphasized that it’s not simply a story about Jewishness or even ethnicity. It’s a universal story of self-discovery.

“For all of us,” she said, “there are moments in our lives that cause us to examine who we are.

Details: Aug. 5-31, Gompertz Theatre at Florida Studio Theatre, 1241 N. Palm Ave, Sarasota. 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday. $25-$39. 941-366-9000, floridastudiotheatre.org.

This story was originally published August 3, 2016 at 5:15 PM with the headline "Sarasota’s Florida Studio Theatre stages ‘The God of Isaac’."