By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO — if you don’t know about Trinity Theater and you’ve been to Mission Valley mall, you’ve probably walked right past it en route to Target. But this tiny theater often hosts some big entertainment. Right now, it’s partnering with Daniel Redman and the History Theater Co, and Dr. Katie B. Turner to produce Thorn and Petal, a play loosely based on my dad (and SDJW founder/ publisher/ editor) Donald H. Harrison’s book Louis Rose: San Diego’s First Jewish Settler and Entrepreneur.
How does one review a play based on a work by their own father? Much less the very editor who will approve or disapprove this piece? With honesty and transparency, I think.
We all went to see the show together, my parents, me and one of my sons. Directed by Turner, it’s 90-minutes, no intermission, so make sure you hit the restroom in Target or next door at Outback restaurant before you go.
My dad was watching for the historical inaccuracies, which they freely admit exist in the introduction to the show. In order to make it more interesting they took a bit of dramatic license, like temporarily placing San Diego in San Bernardino County (which never happened.) Overall though, they stayed true to the characterizations of the main characters- namely Louis Rose (Hunter Katz), James Robinson (Braxton Bell), Matilde Newman (Holly Hood), Sheriff Agostin Haraszthy (Daniel Aguire), Mayor Joshua Bean (David Lanni), and Alonzo Horton (Ryan Yerger.)
The story follows German-Jewish immigrant Rose’s arrival in San Diego in the mid- 1800s, and his experience being an integral part of the early days of San Diego. He faced plenty of antisemitism in the process, but thanks to his geniality he was elected to myriad public offices including the presidency of the city’s board of trustees and the county’s board of supervisors.
As this is community theater, the experience and level of actors varies from actor to actor. All actors put their all into the performance, that much was clear.
Katz and Bell especially deserve props for their performance. Katz had the difficult task of going through a complex range of emotions, holding a German accent, and singing, and managed not only to pull it all off, but to move the audience with his performance. I especially liked his drunk scene and the songs.
The script, written by Redman, has both moments of humor and seriousness. The audience giggled along in the right places. The show opens with the cast going out into the audience and “chatting them up” and every so often the fourth wall is broken, and audience members are brought into the show as townspeople. My son was called on stage to help “build the jail” (out of foam blocks- which apparently wasn’t all that far off from the shoddy construction of the original fist jail built by the crooked and opportunistic Sheriff.)
The stage is mostly bare, with some painted wooden blocks and chairs moved around the stage to become various sets. The blocks were cleverly painted on each side to fit together to represent a welcome sign, a fireplace, the town council marquee, and even Chili, Rose’s pet Galapagos Tortoise.
In the program, various Ai programs are credited with helping come up with costume ideas, initial musical composition (which was then edited and refined by Redman,) the video component, and some research. An appropriate and budget friendly use of modern tools, I think.
I do have a few technical suggestions intended to improve what must be considered a work in progress: There are a lot of scene changes, which are smoothed over by an off-stage narrator explaining the passage of time or bringing us into the next scene. I think it would be much more effective to have the narrator on stage to give the audience a focal point, and make the time condense. Later in the show Alonzo Horton becomes the narrator on stage, and that was way more engaging than the disembodied voice. I also think the pacing of the show could be tightened up a bit. And lastly, some of the actors were hard to hear, I think more mics would be effective, though I understand that as a show with no budget that can be very expensive.
Also, for the sake of drama, timelines were telescoped and the widow Mathilde Newman, whom Rose married in his later years, was portrayed as being an early critic of Sheriff Haraszthy. In truth, by the time she and her first husband Jacob Newman arrived in San Diego, Haraszthy had already moved on to other venues to plunder.
Other than some anachronistic match ups, including Rose vs. Alonzo Horton a decade before Horton arrived in San Diego, I think the audience was really there for the ride and seemed to enjoy the experience. Listening in on conversations as we exited the theater, I heard several people commenting on how interesting it was to see something of San Diego’s early history. And I especially appreciated the open displays of yiddishkeit in the show. My heart swelled when Rose got married and stepped on the glass. Seeing our people represented on stage always makes me kvell.
Thorn and Petal plays through September 21. Tickets may be obtained via Trinity Theatre Company,
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Associate Editor Sandi Masori is a theater and food reviewer for San Diego Jewish World
From my seat in the back row at the 9/13 performance, I saw a fine cast of young people, each of whom performed very well and I understood every word they spoke. The period costumes were excellent, and the modest set did its job. Given the small space of the theater, miking the two singers was not necessary. The only fault I could find was the story. The play was supposedly inspired by a book on Louis Rose which I read, but I was lost trying to follow the action.