Moriah Productions in association with ASHKENAZ: A Festival of New Yiddish Culture

presents a world premiere

a three-act play,
from the stories
of Genesis

The Offering
by Anton Piatigorsky
directed by Chris Abraham

The Offering previews from March 19, opens Saturday, March 25 and runs to April 9 at Artword Theatre, 75 Portland Street.
Tues-Sat. at 8 pm -- $18 to $23 (some discounts available)
Sunday matinees at 2:30 pm -- PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN. Previews $9.99.
Call the Box Office at (416) 408-2783.

The Offering, a modern investigation of tradition and lineage, tells the story of a family through its fathers and sons. This new three-act play examines the cost of identity and patriarchy, and a family’s struggle between distance and closeness as sons age into fatherhood.
Covering four generations, the play opens with the story of Isaac, taken to a mountain top to be sacrificed by his father. It continues with the story of Isaac’s sons, Jacob and Esau, who deceptively compete for their blind father’s blessing. It ends with the story of Jacob meeting his own estranged son, Joseph, exiled in a foreign land working for its ruler.
The cast includes Gary Reineke (Factory’s A Short History of Night), Mark Ellis (Solar Stage’s The Man of Destiny) and Dean Gilmour (Theatre Smith-Gilmour’s Chekhov’s Shorts). James Cameron is the set and costume designer and Stephen Souter is the stage manager.
Anton Piatigorsky studied playwrighting with Paula Vogel, Aishah Rahman and Steven Weeks at Brown University, where he graduated with a degree in religious studies. He has since studied and worked in New York, Jerusalem and Toronto, where he now lives.
Chris Abraham, a graduate of The National Theatre School’s directing program, is a director, designer and dramaturge. He is artistic director for Go Chicken Go, a highly lauded theatre company producing uncompromising versions of contemporary classics and the best in new drama.
The Offering is the fourth time Abraham has directed Piatigorsky’s work. Their earlier collaborations, which received rave reviews from both critics and audiences, include Easy Lenny Lazmon (four-time 1998-1999 Dora Award winner including Best New Play, Outstanding Production and Outstanding Direction), The Kabbalistic Psychoanalysis of Adam R. Tzaddik (winner of the 1998 SummerWorks Prize for best production of an original play and a sold-out run at ASHKENAZ 99) and Mysterium Tremendum (1999 Toronto Fringe Festival hit).