| . | 08/16/2010
The Punishing Blow
By: Eugene Paul
Seth Duerre photo by Karly Fischer
Strange. The program declares we are about to witness an illustrated lecture ordered by the Orange County Criminal Court. On the cover are two line-up photos of one Leslie White looking rather the worse for wear, in what appears to be – a bathrobe? On stage is a podium, a chalk board to one side, further off a table with some books, an old upright piano. Slide projector screen overhead. Hmph. On strides an aggressively busy man with an old, worn briefcase. He – he’s Leslie White, cleaned up, shirt, tie, typical corduroy jacket with dark trousers, shined shoes. He looks us over. We look him over. He begins. He asks his assistant to show a projection of a blue and white plaque which the English affix to historic houses denoting the once upon a time famous tenant of same. Assistant—Jeanne, he calls her – is clumsy or uncooperative. He, already miffed, ups the miff and goes past the slide which does not appear, to get into the meat of his lecture. It is then the slide appears. Something’s going on…
He’s going to lecture us on the life of Daniel Mendoza. We may never have heard of Daniel Mendoza but he presents a list of the one hundred most influential Jews of all time and Mendoza is on it, eighty-second in line. Why in the world—but we don’t have time to think about that because professor White is galloping into his subject and it is a very odd subject. Mendoza, it seems, was a skinny, eighteenth century downtrodden Jew in highly bigoted England, not a scholar, not a banker, not a teacher, not a rabbi, philosopher, doctor, scientist, humanitarian. He was a bloody street fighter. At sixteen, small, unprepossessing, undernourished, he would not allow himself to be bullied or beaten. It was totally unheard of. Jews were meek. Jews scurried. Jews did not even talk back. Mendoza fought, untrained, unskilled but indefatigable.
Professor White is not enjoying his lecture. Except—there’s a certain perversity about all this and that he seems to relish. Why is he here? Why is he doing this court ordered lecture? He does not choose to tell us. He prefers to continue to spit out to us the accomplishments of Mendoza, who catches the eye of a professional fighter-boxer of some note. In eighteenth century England, boxing was the coming manly sport which the toffs greatly admired and espoused and here was this little Jew kid beating the pants off anyone who fought him. The distinguished and much admired Hayes took this scruffy Jew under his clean Christian wing and sponsored him in bouts. There was money to be made.
Professor White is regaling us about Jewish accomplishment it seems. But—not quite. He does not seem to be enjoying this as much as we are. He comes to a point of talking about the accident which brought him to this unpalatable fix. It seems he ran into a tree, a gingko tree, while driving in his bathrobe at night, shouting obscenities. At the tree. Which remarks happened to be anti-Semitic in nature. At length. Very long, loud, nasty, and ugly. He is forced to explain to us that shouting at a gingko tree is not a crime. Knocking it down is rather a minor one. But if you happen to be shouting anti-Semitic tirades while you are engaged in battering a tree with your car until the tree is knocked down, it is classified as a hate crime. These days. And punishable by all kinds of severe and absurd measures. Such as anger managment classes. Community service in the form of what professors do best: lecture. Subject chosen by the court: laudable Jews in history. Choosing a street fighter was Professor White’s stretch of latitude and getting a bit of his own back at the damn Jews. For getting him in this mess. Oh, and he had to mind his alcohol intake, to boot. Did you ever…
Seth Duerr as Leslie White is abominably brilliant. I haven’t enjoyed a performance so much in a – careful now – a dog’s age. He is expertly directed by – Seth Duerr, himself, and makes the tastiest of hashes of playwright Randy Cohen’s witty, biting play, right up to the perfectly logical, unexpected, mordant finish. This is a repeat visit to New York and I cannot see why in the world it is not a couple of hundred yards further east, on Broadway. Catch it while you can.
Clurman Theater, Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street. Tickets: $18. Telecharge.com or 212-239-6200. Wed-Sat 8 pm. Mats, Sat 2 pm, Sun 3 pm.
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