The Black and the Jew Go Buddhist

A collective therapy event which might not interest people who feel that discussing intimate questions of sex is not their cup of tea. However this is a fairly serious discussion full of fun and live interaction with the public who are free to answer or not answer. It all depends on you the spectator.   Its as simple as that. Epstein and Hassan  are a mixed race couple and they give us clues to the success of their relationship during a laboratory where they discuss and show their very own “black-jew love teaching technology!!  rather unorthodox, and perhaps even “unKosher” but they both get into it with lots of real commitment, a good sense of fun. Hassan has a lovely singing and speaking voice, Epstein is pushy and very much in love with his wife.

Their techniques are the result of personal experiences of a   mixed race couple  living in Brooklyn, New York .  Their advice was very specific, it referred to language bloopers, and ways of expressing oneself, ways of acting that could upset the other partner but they certainly had a lot of fun enacting their fights, their reconciliations.  It appeared to me that this show could have been the result of pressure on the couple, resulting from their Brooklyn milieu  where Blacks and Jews do not especially get along and as a result they have created their own survival techniques to create love not war among peoples. It becomes a necessity in certain areas of the city. Maybe i am wrong. In any case I rather liked their openness, even though the frankness of the some moments did make me a bit uncomfortable.

Its a refreshing sort of show even though it did prefer to emphasize difference instead of sameness.. For example, I learned that  the word  “Buckwheat” is a terrible black insult.  Refers to the Little Rascal band from the movies, apparently! Who would have known?  But perhaps being more  conscious of sameness than of  difference could  be another smart getting along  strategy.   It remains to be proven.

Plays at the Academic Hall of the University of Ottawa Theatre Department.