When producer Alan Friedenthal first asked me to direct Via Dolorosa, I wasn’t sure it would engage me. After so many years of the Mideast conflict, and so many glimmers of hope followed by seemingly inevitable disappointments, I had frankly despaired of any lasting solution and blocked out the entire issue.

So I started reading the play with trepidation, only to be instantly drawn in. It is a narrative perfectly framed to lead us through the political maze of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute while introducing us to unique individuals on all sides of the issue.

In Via Dolorosa David Hare brings us a living experience not just disembodied ideas as a lecture would. As I read I was tutored in the subject and, at the same time, communicated the passion generated by long-held beliefs. I felt a deeper appreciation of the urgency, the sadness and the disappointment felt by each of the people I met.

David Bryan Jackson. Photo by Sandi Stadelman

I began questioning the strength of some of my own beliefs in ways I hadn’t before, perhaps because I had been overcome by the fear they could never prevail on this earth. So now I wonder, how strong is my own passion on the scale of where these people live? In my view this is the test [this is a sign?] of good, thought-provoking theater.

Mr. Friedenthal saw David Bryan Jackson perform Via Dolorosa in Washington, DC. Alan was impressed with the production and decided to bring it to Southern California. He found a suitable venue in Burbank, The Missing Piece Theatre, whose very name evokes the puzzling but hopeful.

Via Dolorosa is a monologue in the voice of its author. Is something lost when another person–an “actor”–presents it? Well, if you were hoping to have drinks with David Hare after the play, perhaps yes. It turns out to be a non-issue as to whether or not adding this additional layer might reduce the intimacy as long as the actor himself is interesting and vital–like David Jackson.

The task of re-directing a production is considerably different than directing from scratch. Mr. Jackson came to us with a performance “entire” and my function was to help reshape it for a new set of circumstances and bring a fresh eye to the piece. Besides making some technical adjustments, mostly having to do with adapting the production to a new venue, I had the privilege of guiding Mr. Jackson’s interpretation with an eye to certain values that reflect my own perceptions. No doubt I have emphasized some details differently compared to the Washington production but all in the service of the play as I see it.

I believe the first and most important task is to energize the audience right off so they bring their emotions into play from the beginning. I suppose it’s the opposite of Brechtian “alienation” to underscore ideas with feelings but to remove the emotional–i.e., passionate–from Via Dolorosa is to violate its essence. The play is not an intellectual debate, after all, but the depiction of a thinking, feeling man’s journey into…what, futility?

After meeting the delightful David Jackson in LA in July and seeing him run through Via Dolorosa, I have worked with him mostly on the phone and by email, a process very new to us both and prone to occasional misunderstandings–which we have, thankfully, ironed out to our mutual satisfaction. He will not be physically joining us until September 26, and as we open October 1, this will be an interesting test of an unusual method of bringing a play to the stage. I make one guarantee, though–it will not be dull.

Feature photo: Patricia Lee Willson

Via Dolorosa, produced by Alan Friedenthal for Southern California Jewish Repertory Theatre, opens Oct. 1; plays Fri.-Sat., 8 pm; Sun., 3 & 7 pm; through Nov. 7. Tickets: $20-$25. Missing Piece Theatre, 2811 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank; 800.838.3006 or brownpapertickets.com/event124240 or scjewishrep.org.