Review: 'Trayf' at Six Points Theater in St. Paul lacks energy and oomph

Some people listen to the music of Elton John and Prince and get inspired, swaying to "Rocket Man" or dancing to "Kiss." Shmuel, a 19-year-old living in Brooklyn in 1991, has never heard of either of these pop superstars but feels that they are somehow the gateway to hell.

That's because secular music is prohibited for him and fellow members of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic subgroup to which he belongs. Shmuel is devoted to his beliefs and works to further them, even as his childhood best friend, Zalmy, deals in mixtapes like they are illicit drugs and is increasingly drawn to the outside world.

Zalmy (Soren Thayne Miller) and Shmuel (Charlie Peterson) are the center of "Trayf," Lindsay Joelle's 100-minute one-act that opened over the weekend at Six Points Theater in St. Paul. It's an inchoate buddy bromance with two friends in black suits and hats who go out to recruit Jews they believe need to cleave more deeply to the orthodox traditions followed by the Lubavitchers.

And how does one get accepted with them? As Shmuel explains, recruits have to have a Jewish soul. Enter Jonathan (Paul LaNave), who grew up Catholic but after finding out that he has Jewish forbears is now trying to embrace his heritage. Jonathan is getting closer to the orthodox faith as Zalmy pulls away from it, upending Zalmy's friendship with Shmuel.

From arranged marriages to the rigid separation of people by genders, "Trayf" is respectful and nonjudgmental about the religious group. It is first-rate as an educational essay for the stage. In fact, the playbill includes a cheat sheet explaining terms such tefillin (the leather boxes with Torah scripture that observant Jews wear), shidduch (a way of matchmaking) and shnutz (Yiddish slang for cojones). The title of the play comes from the term for unkosher food.

If "Trayf" is a little distant as a stage work, it's because both its story line and its characters lack compelling development. The production, staged by Jennie Ward, is short of both drama and comedy. The action takes place in the front seat of the rented truck that serves as the friends' Mitzvah tank, or proselytizing headquarters, as well as on a Brooklyn rooftop and a park bench.

In Ward's direction, Shmuel and Zalmy mostly sit and talk, or stand and talk, creating a sense of inertia that ultimately begins to smother the production.

As performers, both Peterson and Miller are still developing but are able to tap into the confusion, passion and righteousness that one often finds in young adults. Nineteen-year-olds can know everything and nothing at all at the same time and the two actors convey those contradictions well.

In fact, the funniest moment of "Trayf" occurs when Peterson's Shmuel tells Miller's Zalmy how a new couple will have conjugal relations on their wedding night. The laughter comes from Shmuel's ignorance of the way human anatomy works — and the two actors mine his innocence for laughs.

Interestingly, the smallest role in "Trayf" is probably its most captivating, if only because it is the most relatable.

Marci Lucht plays Leah, Jonathan's smart, highly educated girlfriend who is Jewish and an atheist. Lucht comes in like a strong wind, shaking up the action and injecting a sense of danger and a whole lot of tension in the show. Snappy, entertaining and fully engaging, her performance offers a glimpse of the kind of life force that could take "Trayf" to the next level.

'Trayf'
Who: By Lindsay Joelle. Directed by Jennie Ward for Six Points Theater.
Where: Highland Park Community Center Theater, 1978 Ford Pkwy., St. Paul.
When: 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Thu., 8 p.m. Sat., 1 p.m. Sun. Ends March 12.
Tickets: $25-$40. 651-647-4315. sixpointstheater.org
Protocol: Masks required Wed. & Sun.