‘After Crystal Night’ Tries to Mix Shtick and Issues

On the surface, “After Crystal Night” at the Odyssey Theatre is a somewhat specialized satiric portrait of assimilated Beverly Hills Jews, cleverly written but rife with caricatures and formulaic sitcom banter.

On a more broadly resonant level, however, John Herman Shaner’s dramedy probes deeper questions of social responsibility. Set in the 1980s, this handsomely staged play pivots on an unexpected moral test facing Seymour Goldstein, perfectly portrayed by Joel Polis as an affluent, successful nebbish who’s turned his back on his Jewishness. So much so, in fact, that his hilariously feisty uncle (Larry Gelman) wonders if Seymour is still circumcised.

The melding of these two levels is far from seamless, as the play’s abundant shtick and serious issues often pull in opposite directions. To his credit, director Robert Walden emphasizes and clarifies the latter wherever possible, and skillfully unifies the piece with a more personalized theme in Seymour’s transition to manhood.

Still a “nice Jewish boy” at age 45, Seymour’s rite of passage occurs when he’s pressured for contributions by activists from the Jewish Defense League, an organization whose confrontational tactics have always appalled and embarrassed him. In a forceful if sometimes pat debate, the JDL organizer (David Barry Gray) calls Seymour on his historical amnesia, daring him to support a protest march against a Nazi rally denying the Holocaust ever happened.

Torn between his conscience and the entreaties of his safety-minded family (Jennifer Gelfer, Isaac Hackett and Stephen Mendel), Seymour’s prolonged waffling covers the same ground a few too many times, but eventually finds its way to a convincing footing as he finds his way to his inner warrior.

Fine ensemble performances help make the case here, but the implicit endorsement of vigilantism, even in the service of a legitimate cause, raises troubling questions. Recent events have underscored the importance of ethnic and religious groups to stand up for their rights in the face of unfair prejudice, but there’s a flip side to that social contract--the freedom to enjoy those rights sometimes requires setting aside narrower allegiances and agendas in the interest of a common value system. Otherwise, our nation becomes nothing more than a motel for tourists with specialized interests who only end up trashing the place. Making the right choices here has never been more important--the consequences are a lot more serious than Seymour’s bloodied nose.

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“After Crystal Night,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. (2 p.m. on Nov. 4 and 18 only). Ends Nov. 25. $19.50-23.50. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.