Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...Weisman, who is forceful, cool and disciplined here, keeps Asher at a certain remove from the dilemmas his character faces. I'd guess that's a conscious decision by actor and director. It keeps the show moving, dramatizes artistic distance and ensures no wallowing in kitchen-table sentiment. This is a very interesting performance from one of Chicago's best young actors, although I did, in the final analysis, wonder if that remove needed to be more of a process than a state of being. And I craved more of what such choices cost an artist who clearly loves his parents and his religious tradition, even as he hacks away at its tenets."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...Any discussion of “My Name is Asher Lev,” TimeLine Theatre’s masterpiece of a production, must begin with a reminder of one of the Ten Commandments — the one that forbade Jews to engage in idolatry, and the creation of any form of false image that would undermine the religion’s principal tenet of monotheism: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.”"
Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended
"...For some reason directors like to portray religious Jews as if they just got back from the Babylonian exile: weeping mystics with bad posture, waving their hands over open flames and pronouncing Hebrew prayers in weirdly unintelligible ways. That's one reason why it's so refreshing to see this TimeLine Theatre staging of Aaron Posner's play, an adaptation of the Chaim Potok novel about an artist prodigy born to a family of Brooklyn Hasids."
Windy City Times - Highly Recommended
"...The conflict between these two spheres is immediately apparent in Brian Sidney Bembridge's scenic design for this Timeline Theatre production, its predominant feature being a steep staircase against a bare wall that will soon be covered in sketches we can only imagine. Upstairs is young Asher Lev's room, underneath are the musicians-violin, cello and clarinet-who provide a running commentary on the action, and at floor level, we see the world of his parents, whose obsession with the rescue and reparation of their persecuted brethren matches that of their son. This latter world also encompasses the wise rabbi who reluctantly permits Asher to study art under the tutelage of a sculptor who warns his pupil that the muse will lure him into dangerous realms, where his agony will eventually find its voice in the forbidden iconography of goyisch strangers."
Gapers Block - Highly Recommended
"...Senior's direction perfectly tunes the pace and timing of this stirring story and the three actors carry out their roles with emotional depth. Brian Sidney Bembridge's lighting and scenic design create a space of dark woods that change easily from family kitchen to office to studio. The upper level space and the stairs leading to it serve as Asher's gallery and his studio. Elise Kauzlaric's dialect coaching has worked very well, especially in helping Weisman develop Asher's Brooklyn accent."
Time Out Chicago - Recommended
"...Still, Kimberly Senior and her cast do well by the material they're given. Senior adds an onstage trio of musicians to play an original score by Andrew Hansen, mixing styles from Yiddish folk to bebop, but otherwise the director keeps things unadorned. And Weisman, though he interacts more with us than with the other characters onstage, displays a compelling leading-man presence. He's slowly but surely making his name one to remember."
Stage and Cinema - Recommended
"...The outcome, like Asher’s avocation, is never in doubt. Still, watching Asher take responsibility for his secular faith is as edifying as seeing Huck Finn defy his “conscience” to help Jim to escape slavery. Richly enhancing this stirring staging is Brian Sidney Bembridge’s scholarly and curatorial setting and the intense live jazz/klezmer accompaniment that evokes Asher’s warring worlds, skillfully played by Adam DeGroot, Merrick Jones, and Elena Spiegel."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...The themes of conflicting traditions, suffering, beauty and self-identity are explored quite dramatically. Lawrence Grim effectively mores from the father to the Rebbe to the stern mentor Jacob Kahn while Danica Monroe plays the women. What holds our interest is the empathetic honest performance by Alex Weisman. He neatly underplays Asher's passion while releasing that passion emotionally when it explodes to the surface. Weisman delivers a fabulous performance as the conflicted artist. He is in award territory here."
Chicago Stage and Screen - Recommended
"...The script is a very interesting piece, accentuated by subtle direction and lighting design by Brian Bembridge. Director Kimberly Senior sets a somber, contemplative tone from the beginning and it it remains consistent throughout. The story reminded me of “Other Voices, Other Rooms”, a Truman Capote novella in which a sensitive young boy attempts to find his place through his craft. You might call this “Jewish Gothic”. The young Asher feels his way through the dark, spiritual heaviness of his home life, and in a beautiful moment, is illuminated in blazing light when his artistic awakening occurs. A quartet of musicians accompanies the play, deepening the sense of something waiting to burst out from below the surface."
Around The Town Chicago - Recommended
"...The TimeLine Theatre is producing an adaptation of Chaim Potok's novel "My Name is Asher Lev" at The Theatre Wit. It is the story of the coming of age and vocation of a Hasidic Jewish painter. As the play opens, Asher (Alex Weisman) is a child and his artistic interests and talents have already began to elicit the admiration, confusion, and concern of his parents. His father and his uncle travel for The Rabbis (all three are played by Lawrence Grimm), trying to spread Hasidism to Jews in other countries. The latter is killed, and Ascher's Mother (Danica Monroe) is increasingly tormented for the rest of the play. ` To compound matters, the Rabbi, has arranged for Asher to study under the great artist, and non-observant Jew, Jacob Kahn (also played by Lawrence Grimm). Under his tutelage, Asher becomes a painter of increasing repute and even fame, but his subjects, particularly crucifixions and female nudes, drive him further and further from his father, and his mother feels responsible. The play's climax and resolution are melancholic, but written and staged in a way that is more optimistic than the novel."
Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended
"...There are many novels, plays and films that portray the voyage a young artist must often take to achieve independence and personal success. Adam Posner’s adaptation of Chaim Potok’s novel, brought to vivid life in a polished production by Kimberly Senior, paints a story of conflict, anguish and hope. Everyone, especially younger audiences, will identify with Asher’s struggle to follow his dream and be true to himself. As Jacob Kahn tells Asher, “As an artist you are responsible to no one and to nothing except to yourself and to the truth, as you see it.” TimeLine’s artists do just that."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...Under the direction of Kimberly Senior, Alex Weisman (Asher) is the tormented painter. Weisman engages as the skillful narrator. He sets up the flashback as the older, cynical Asher and then he nimbly steps into the scene as his younger version. As a six year old, Weisman is precocious with questions for his exasperated mother played by Danica Monroe. Later when Monroe is catatonic in grief, a ten year old Weisman tries to placate her with his forced drawings of flowers. Watching Weisman wrestle between 'who his parents want him to be' verses 'who he actually is' is poignant and heartbreaking. At one point, Weisman tries to suppress his creative urges. His whole body tenses up. His fists are clenched. His face is reddened with anger. We can see the internal implosion ready to blow his yamaka off."
