San Diego (special) -- Try to imagine that transcendant moment in religious history after Abraham was commanded by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. If you were Abraham, what would your thoughts be as you walked with your son to Mount Moriah? And what would Isaac think as he walked with his father?

Playwright David Shulner pondered these questions and introduced some
new elements to the famous biblical story which Jews read every year
during the High Holidays. Suppose there was someone else walking
alongside Abraham and Isaac? Suppose the devil came along to argue with
Abraham whether God was justified in making such a request of him?

Abraham's and Isaac's journey to Mount Moriah was so outside of ordinary
time that it prompted Shulner, through his devilish voice, to forecast
some of the tragedies that might befall Jews who blindly put their faith
in God:

Your God made His covenant with you in blood.
He made you cut from your own flesh.
He made you and your son bleed.
This is how He makes Himself known to you, Abraham.
He destroys cities.
He floods the earth.
He reveals Himself in blood
You are a Jew because you bleed for Him.
And this will not be the last time.
For you Jews.
Abraham.
If you do this task
You will tell Him that the Jews will bleed for their God.
And you cannot imagine the fire you will start.
A fire your people will not extinguish
Because they have faith in God.
The faith you taught them.
And you will have lit the match.
You, Abraham.

The play will be read at 7 p.m., Monday, June 11, as part of the Streisand
Festival of New Jewish Plays. The controversial. denouement may astound
the audience, possibly even cause anger, but also could provoke a lot of
soul-searching about Jewish ethics. And I wouldn't be surprised if
reactions to the play also split along gender lines.

The script calls for the three cast members to rotate the responsibility of
portraying the devil--even as they are playing Abraham, Sarah and Isaac. I
could not help but wonder how director Brendon Fox plans to achieve this
effect during the staged reading at the Lawrence Family Jewish
Community Center.

Fox, Schulner and the festival's artistic director, D. Candis Paule, chose
Michael Kary for the role of Isaac, Robert May for Abraham, and Amber
Wolfe for Sarah. 

What a challenge these actors will have! Not only will they have to bring
to life two patriarchs and a matriarch whose names shape our Jewish
prayers but they also will have to portray convincingly the devil in a play
that may well generate adverse reaction from the audience.

Love it or hate it, isn't this what theater is supposed to be about?