In The Ally, a new play by Itamar Moses, arguments flow into each other seamlessly, even if the arguments themselves are often jagged and multidirectional. Staged in front of 270-degree seating at the Public Theater in Manhattan, director Lila Neugebauer transitions between scenes without blackouts or set changes (there are no sets and few props, apart from a couple of folding chairs and a few packets of papers). Instead, actors exit and enter barely missing a beat, as whatever character bridging the sequences – usually Asaf Sternheim (Josh Radnor), a playwright and part-time college professor – turns to his next scene partner. Asaf isn’t a confrontational guy, yet he keeps finding himself in the midst of conversational minefields – especially for someone who only teaches, as he’s reminded in a running gag, just one class. That’s “14 days a year”, his wife, Gwen (Joy Osmanski), playfully reminds him, given that his once-a-semester class meets once a week.
Asaf is only teaching because Gwen has recently accepted a job with the university’s administration, but he has enjoyed interacting with promising students. So when Baron (Elijah Jones), one of his best, asks for his signature on a manifesto in light of police violence against the local Black community, Asaf agrees – appalled and saddened to hear that the most recent victim was Baron’s cousin. Reading over the document before endorsing it, Asaf stumbles slightly over some language related to the Israel-Palestine conflict, not least because of his Jewish family. Ultimately, he decides to sign anyway; he knows the author, Nakia (Cherise Boothe), from his undergraduate years, and agrees with almost all of her points, even if he might have a quibble or two with the details. But when students Rachel (Madeline Weinstein) and Farid (Michael Khalid Karadsheh) approach him about sponsoring a new Jewish student group, Asaf winds up hemming, hawing and a lot more, as his “complicated” thoughts on Israel wind up coming under fire from a range of vantages. Open academic debate (which is how Asaf would like to think of these conflicts, whether they qualify or not) quickly turns into something fiercer and more personal.
