Nubia Monks, Ndunzi Kunsuga, Sasha Andreev, Tic Treitler, and Ahmad Maher Photo by Rich Ryan

I urge you to make time to see The Ally for yourself before trying to answer or dismiss these questions. The play is currently at Mixed Blood Theatre, hot on the trail of its Off-Broadway premiere at New York's Public Theater last winter. It is the first production directed by Mark Valdez since he picked up the reins as Mixed Blood's artistic director following the retirement of founding artistic director (of 46 years) Jack Reuler, though Valez had guest-directed nine Mixed Blood productions over the past eighteen years, so his work had already been oft seen by Mixed Blood audiences. In his directorial premiere wearing the artistic director's cap, Valdez demonstrates a capacity to synthesize the needs of staging a fairly traditional–structurally speaking–play, with the progressive aims of Mixed Blood as an engine for community engagement and social change. In a sweet touch, Valez mounted the stage to welcome the opening night audience, then took a couple of selfies of himself, the audience behind him, to send to his mother.

Moses is a Tony Award winning (for the book of the musical The Band's Visit) playwright. His central character in The Ally, Asaf Sternheim, finds himself in a morass of judgments over his ability to be and remain an ally to anyone in a whirlwind of political issues. These issues may or may not be linked, depending on your–and, in terms of the play, each character's–perspective and view of the world's wrongs on a systems level, versus distinct pools of self-contained conflicts. Significantly, the time is established as September, 2023. Asaf is an atheistic Jew raised in Berkeley (as was the playwright), that mecca of progressive thought, and he has gone on to write plays about 18th and 19th century Europe–not exactly in step with the headlines. His parents were Israelis, but left Israel when Asaf was quite young, and he does not identify as an Israeli. His wife Gwen, a second generation Korean-American, has been hired as the community outreach officer of a prestigious university, to which Asaf has relocated with her. There, he tries to discipline himself to work on his writing while teaching one writing class a year as an adjunct at the university.

Being an ally comes into question when Asaf's star student from last year, Baron, approaches Asaf to sign a manifesto decrying the police killing of an unarmed young Black man on campus. The murdered man happened to be Baron's cousin. Asaf has remained somewhat aloof from this incident, but when he learns of Baron's personal connection he expresses great concern and is eager to sign the manifesto. However, upon close reading, Asaf discovers that the lengthy manifesto goes beyond demands concerning police brutality and racial profiling to cover other injustices, including Israel's policy toward Palestinians and its illegal occupation of territories held since the 1967 Six Days War. Words like "apartheid" and "genocide" appear, and, though not in any way a religious Jew nor identifying as a Zionist, Asaf is deeply discomfited.

To sign or not to sign becomes the question. Factoring into his decision is Gwen's present work trying to reach an accord with the Black community adjacent to campus–the community in which Baron's cousin resided–over the university's plans to expand its campus footprint into that neighborhood. Further factoring in is that (spoiler alert) once he does sign, Asaf, now perceived as an anti-Zionist, is pursued by a left-wing Jewish student working with a Palestinian student to sponsor a new student activist group, and pursued by a Zionistic graduate student of Jewish Studies to withdraw his signature and denounce the manifesto's stand on Israel. It further complicates things that the force behind the manifesto is a local African American activist, Nakia Clark, who–and here is where the playwright, for all his excellent work, stretches the credulity of "small world-ism"–is Asaf's ex-flame. Moses conceives their encounters and writes the ensuing dialogue quite convincingly, and Nakia, as a character who has made a career of social activism, adds a valuable dimension to the play. Still, it seems that tossing in this personal history should not have been necessary for the playwright to make his points, and feels a bit like window dressing that, if anything, perhaps diminishes those points a bit.

Nonetheless, the play as a whole functions like clockwork, arguments and positions deftly teeter-tottering back and forth, as the chafing against the purity of Asaf's desire to be an ally begins to painfully burn. Valdez chose to mount the play with a traverse staging–scenes enacted on a runway that divides the audience into two sides, each directly facing that runway. Set designer Eli Sherlock provides a stark white runway floor that curls up on one end, with a portal allowing characters to enter and exit somewhat ambiguously, and with a door on the other end for more definitive entrances and exits. Wu Chen Khoo's lighting design creates pools of light when needed to narrow a character's–most often Asaf's–available space as he feels the constrictions of struggling to be a good ally, a good husband, and, it turns out, a good Jew, while maintaining a sense of himself. Garry Lennon's apt costume designs and C. Andrew Mayer's sound design further build upon the production's strength.

All of the other characters engage in verbal sparring with Asaf, who, as the title character, is an unintended hub pierced by these opinionated spokes. Valdez keeps Asaf and his adversaries at different ends of the long white runway, creating a sense of the distance between allies and true believers. Sasha Andreev gives a powerful performance as Asaf, showing us from the start how his whole existence in this college town is an effort to be an ally to his wife, then caught off-guard when his approach to social and political discord–that of a bystander, concerned while watching a house afire and wanting to know if there isn't anything he can do–is challenged. He means to be a good ally, we see that, but to be just an ally, without a deep resonance with the cause, turns out to be a dicey proposition. Andreev's use of facial expressions to convey Asaf's feelings–generally, in reaction mode–and his posture, expressing discomfit in spite of Asaf's efforts to be cool and correct, make this a masterful performance.

Nubia Monks gives a scorching performance as Nakia Clark, giving evidence at the character's whip-smart way with an argument and clear-eyed focus on the battles she chooses to fight. Monks also credibly plays a rabbi who gently guides Asaf in a surprising direction. Ndunzi Kunsuga is terrific as Baron, a student radicalized by his familial connection to an unjust killing, whose eyes are opened as his ally veers into and out of his orbit. Sun Mee Chomet makes a striking impression as Asaf's stressed wife, who finds herself having to compete for her husband's loyalty.

Tic Treitler is remarkable as Rachel Klein, the radical Jewish student who pushes Asaf beyond his own range of comfort. Treitler perfectly conveys the passion and righteousness of bright, young idealists. I've seen her like at political events, as persuasive in real life as Treitler is on stage. Ahmad Maher is stirring as Farid El Masry, the Palestinian student collaborating with Rachel in their determination to do more than lodge complaints, but to bring about change. Completing the cast, David Michaeli is compelling as Zionistic grad student Reuven Fisher, delivering the character's confidence and aggression with panache.

It should be noted that the play was written before, and is set just before, the October 7 terrorist attack and the current war in Gaza, so the horrific business going on now for over a year is not accounted for in the dialogue about settler colonialism, Zionism, Palestinian rights, Israel's security needs, and related issues. It is hard to imagine how Moses would alter the play given the events of the past year, but at the least, it is fair to say that this tragic turn of events makes The Ally even more, not less, relevant.

The Ally does have streaks of humor throughout, to give respite to the very serious issues and conversations that make up its bulk. It is that rarity among new plays: a serious play that offers multiple perspectives on its crucial subject, so that we are not told what to think, but urged to think for ourselves. Added to that is Mark Valdez' point-perfect production. I cannot recommend The Ally highly enough.

The Ally, runs through November 17, 2024, at Mixed Blood Theatre, 1501 S. Fourth Street, Minneapolis MN. For tickets and information, please call 612-338-6131 or visit mixedblood.com.

Playwright: Itamar Moses; Director: Mark Valdez; Set Design: Eli Sherlock; Costume Design: Garry Lennon; Lighting Design: Wu Chen Khoo; Sound Design: C. Andrew Mayer; Properties Design: Abbee Warmboe; Assistant Lighting Designer: Mags Scanlon; Technical Director: Evan Sima; Production Stage Manager: Lindsay Johnson.

Cast: Sasha Andreev (Asaf Sternheim), Sun Mee Chomet (Gwen Kim), Ndunzi Kunsuga (Baron Prince), Ahmad Maher (Farid El Masry), David Michaeli (Reuven Fisher), Nubia Monks (Nakia Clark/Rabbi), Tic Treitler (Rachel Klein).