Its heart is definitely in the right place, and I can’t fault the performances elicited by director caryn desai, but I found Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum and Ronda Spinak’s downer of a Holocaust memorial play The Violin Maker too narration-and-flashbacks-heavy to fully command my attention throughout most of its two-hour running time.

 Debuting two years ago in Sydney, Australia as Stories From The Violins Of Hope, The Violin Maker is indeed a series of stories told primarily by Israeli luthier Amnon Weinstein (Bruce Nozick), who has made it his life’s work to make and repair stringed instruments at his Tel Aviv workshop, or as he puts it, ensure that every violin, new or old, has its own voice by first finding said voice and then letting it “speak.”

Every violin, that is, except those he keeps crated away from sight because the mere idea of seeing them, much less touching them, would awaken feelings and memories best kept locked away.

Over the course of The Violin Maker’s two acts, Amnon’s reminiscences of past events are interrupted by dozens of brief flashback reenactments of those events, the play’s six supporting players embodying over thirty major and minor characters, though it’s mostly Amnon that does the talking, and there’s a lot of it.

It’s a format that may work for some, though not for this reviewer.

 I find memory plays most effective when the storyteller’s narration is kept to a minimum, like Tom Wingfield’s in The Glass Menagerie or Michael Evans’s in Dancing at Lughnasa.

Such is not the case with The Violin Maker, which sinks under the weight of so much narration.

It doesn’t help that much of what unfolds on stage is so dimly lit by Donna and Tom Ruzika as to produce a soporific effect regardless of what characters wearing Kimberly DeShazo’s shades-of-brown costumes are doing on Destiny Manewal’s shades-of-brown set.

On the plus side, Nozick does committed, powerful work as a man tormented by memories too horrific to confront, and a topnotch supporting cast—Sheer Aviram, Matthew Bohrer, Matthew Henerson, Lielle Kaidar, Morgan Lauff, and Aviva Pressman—bring to vivid life nearly three dozen featured and cameo roles in an assortment of  accessories and accents.

Atmospherically speaking, The Violin Lesson’s American Premiere benefits from the musicianship of music curator Dr. Nareen Green on piano and Jonathan Rubin on violin performing an assortment of melodies from classical to klezmer.

Properties designer Patty Briles has gone above and beyond the call of duty here given the sheer number of violins onstage, and these are only some of the props she’s furnished for the production.

Last but not least, Dave Mickey’s sound design and Anthony Gagliardi’s hair and wig designs are both topnotch.

The Violin Maker is produced by desai. John H. Freeland, Jr. is production stage manager and Sarai Sarmiento is assistant stage manager. Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA, and Richie Ferris, CSA. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

More than a few Holocaust-themed plays have held me spellbound over the years, so perhaps it’s more a matter of style than substance that I found Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum and Ronda Spinak’s The Violin Maker less to my liking than say Jennifer Maisel’s Eight Nights, Paula Vogel’s Indecent, and (one of my favorite ICT productions ever) Barbara Lebow’s A Shayna Maidel.

Unfortunately, I can’t add International City Theatre’s latest to that list.

International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Through May 11. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30. Sundays at 2:00.
www.InternationalCityTheatre.org

–Steven Stanley
April 27, 2025
Photos: Jordan Gohara

Visit www.theatreinla.com/nowplayingrs.php for a review roundup of what’s now playing in theaters around Los Angeles.

Tags: International City Theatre, Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum and Ronda Spinak, Los Angeles Theater Review