Acacia Theater, Milwaukee’s Christian faith-based theater company, explores the different phases of love in The Jeweler’s Shop, written by Pope John Paul II. In this romantic story, three different couples discover different ways to express the timeless nature of love. The show begins and ends with monologues by a narrator, who also appears at various times in different roles. The show’s departure from traditional linear storytelling may be confusing at times for the audience. But in a Shakespearean sense, as well as a religious one, the result is the same: love conquers all.
The play is set in an indeterminate place and time. It opens in the evening, under the tolling sound of a church bell. The three couples, all male-female, are introduced to the audience while standing in the same spot: in front of a jeweler’s shop.
The show’s narrator (Joe Dolan) introduces the first couple, Andrew (Marcel Alston) and Teresa (Kimberly Giddens). He explains that the two young people, living in the same town, first got to know each other as friends. During a group hike, an unexplained crisis finds them seeing each other in a new way. Love begins to bloom. Eventually, the couple finds itself standing in the jeweler’s shop, looking for wedding rings. Fast-forwarding through their relationship, the couple has a baby, and then Andrew goes off to World War II. He never returns. Yet Teresa keeps her love alive for Andrew in her heart.
The action then shifts to another couple, Anna (Susie Duecker) and Stephen (Jacob Petrowsky). At first, they, too, are in love. But their marriage is troubled. Eventually, Anna gives up on the relationship and attempts to sell her wedding ring to the jeweler. Adam (as the jeweler) rejects her notion to sell the ring. He attempts to guide Anna through her feelings, to see if her love can be rekindled.
The final story is a happy one, as it focuses on the marriage of one of the previous couple’s grown-up daughters, Monica (Bekah Rose) to the other couple’s adult son, Christopher (Andrew Sear). This reunites all three couples in a new way, encouraging the older couples (and the audience) to examine their own relationships.
If this plot sounds familiar, the play was made into a 1988 film starring Burt Lancaster and Olivia Hussey. It had its Off-Broadway debut in 1994, at St. Bart’s Playhouse. The play, translated into English in 1980, has been translated into many languages over the years.
In the Acacia production, director Elaine Rewolinski evokes feelings of strength and conviction from her cast, although the characters’ romantic expressions are somewhat subdued. As Adam, Joe Dolan sets the mood as a richly detailed, omnipotent narrator. His attempts to guide the other characters through the various phases of love and loss are highlights of this show.
On a minimal set (by Ashley Petrowsky), windows and doors of various shapes and sizes serve as the backdrop, under the lighting design by Dan Hummel. The intentionally nondescript costumes (Katlyn Rogers Kelly) reveal little of the character’s personalities. Adam is dressed in formal attire, while the rest of the cast appear more as peasants.
The play’s religious themes are more inferred than explicitly stated in the dialogue. However, given the playwright’s background, it is easy to transfer ideas about human love to the creator’s divine love for mankind. It is a solid addition to the theater company’s 42nd season.
