You have the chance this weekend to see two of Cincinnati's best professional actors onstage — but you'll have to work at it a bit, since it's at an out-of-the-way location (and a bit pricey). The show is
Harold Pinter's Ashes to Ashes, a one-act play that portrays an emotional conversation between Devlin and Rebecca, a couple in their 40s, in an indeterminate present. He interrogates her about her recollections of an abusive ex-lover, looking for a single, simple truth. She recalls not only the violence she has experienced, but also the wider violence of the world, becoming one with all victims of atrocities.—-
The script is ambiguous and layered, exploring trauma, the plasticity of memory and what it means to be human. CEA Hall of Fame actress Dale Hodges plays Rebecca; veteran professional Kevin Crowley is Devlin.
Given the subject matter, it should not come as a surprise that the work is being presented by the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute, a nonprofit educational institution that offers mental health professionals post-graduate training in psychoanalytic theory and practice and the study of the human mind.
Each performance will be followed by a discussion of the issues featuring Gila Safran Naveh, a professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Cincinnati.
Saturday's performance is at 8 p.m. The cost is $36 and light refreshments are provided following the show. Sunday's show is at 6:30 p.m. and the $72 ticket includes a full post-show buffet. Both shows are being staged at the chapel at Hebrew Union College (3101 Clifton Ave., Clifton) in cooperation with the American Jewish Archives.
The dates were chosen in honor of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), which is May 1.
Proceeds will support the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute. For more information and reservations, click here.
Photo of Kevin Crowley and Dale Hodges by Lucianne Crowley
