Keey Dandomirsky, Patrick Sanbongui (photo credit: David Cooper)
The Haunting Past
by Jay Catterson
Coping with loss and grief is what is explored in the new play Haunted by Daniel Karasik, winner of the 2011 Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition. This is the premiere production of this work, produced by Touchstone Theatre in association with the Vancouver Chutzpah! Festival.
The story centres around Abby Shiner (played by Kerry Sandomirsky), a relatively non-religious English literature professor whose husband had suddenly died of a heart attack. To cope, she attends synagogue where she meets David Green (Patrick Sabongui), a young handsome rabbi whose physical exuberance Abby finds attractive. As Abby and David explore their unusual relationship, Abby's headstrong daughter Sarah (Carmel Amit) coping with the loss of her father, reveals to her logic-driven girlfriend Raina Maclaine (Kayla Deorksen) that the reason she had revisited her passion for painting after a yearlong hiatus is because her deceased father visits her at night.