‘Polish Joke’ from Kaleidoscope Theatre Productions: Play stays within lines of fun
“Polish Joke,” the spring offering from Kaleidoscope Theatre Productions, has been raising eyebrows in Western New York’s Polish-American community since word of the production hit last month.
As a result of complaints, Canisius College, which has rented its Marie Maday Theatre to Kaleidoscope for the past seven years, decided to end its relationship with the company effective at the end of its current production. That leaves Kaleidoscope, with dozens of subscriptions for next season already sold and precious little time to secure a new venue, in an unenviable position.
After sitting through Friday night’s opening of this good-hearted though overtly moralistic comedy, it’s tough to see what the controversy is about.
Theater Review
“Polish Joke”
★★★
Opened Friday night and presented through June 27 by Kaleidoscope Theatre Productions in Marie Maday Theatre, Canisius College. For more information, visit kaleidoscope theatreproductions.com or call 479-1587.
At its essence, “Polish Joke” is about one man’s crisis of identity over his Polish heritage, his long and misguided journey away from his roots and his eventual realization that true ethnic identity is to be denied at one’s ultimate peril. It is nothing less than an affirmation, if a rather long-winded one, of the importance of embracing one’s own heritage.
Playwright David Ives, in his traditionally neurotic and absurdist manner, has employed a hearty helping of self-deprecation, the standard tool of ethnocentric comedies like “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” Ives’ jokes — which aim to flip standard Polish jokes on their heads by placing them within Ives’ self-critical narrative—don’t always hit home. But what they never do is step over the line from satire and into demeaning caricature of Polish people, as has been suggested by community members, many of whom have neither seen nor read the play.
Thomas LaChiusa gives an adept comic performance as Jasiu, the conflicted protagonist, as does David Hoffmann in a variety of roles. Director Maureen Sheldon points out in her program note that she, and most of the actors — not to mention the playwright himself — are Polish.
This fact should encourage community members who have manufactured gut-reactionary outrage at what they read about the play, or merely at its provocative title, to come out and judge for themselves.
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