“The Melting Pot” is a play written by Israel Zangwill that was first performed in 1908. Yes, 1908. It is the story of David Quixano, a young Jewish composer who flees from Russia after surviving a pogrom in 1903 that has wiped out his family. He flees to New York City where he hopes to “fit in.” After all, isn’t America the place where all races are melted down and can start anew?
But the play doesn’t begin with his flight to America. It begins with David (Adam Galloway) at the home of his Uncle Mendel (J. Hernandez) in New York in 1908. The young man is a talented violinist, who will eventually play in the orchestra of the prominent, Herr Pappelmeister. He is also composing a symphony celebrating America as a country who welcomes and accepts people of all nationalities and religions. And then, he meets Vera (Lexi Thammavong), who he falls for. She is also from Russia, but she is Christian.
Mendel isn’t the only one to frown upon his nephew’s attraction for the Christian girl, Vera (Lexi Thammavong). Quincy Davenport (Eli Lynn) wants the girl to himself and smears David with antisemitic comments.
Is America a melting pot where all can blend in? In fact, Zangwill popularized the use of the expression with this play. But it is so much more we discover when Vera’s father arrives and David learns that the man was largely responsible for carrying out the pogrom in Kishinev, where David’s family was wiped out five years before.
President Theodore Roosevelt was at the New York premier of the play and loved it calling it a “great play.” I thought it was a good play, but I had some issues with it.
I’m not a big fan of plays that are filled with lengthy monologues as “The Melting Pot” is. I like to see more of the drama rather than being told about it in a lecture. I can’t say much about the acting since they didn’t do much beyond the reciting of their lines. And they were dressed in contemporary clothing, so we had little feeling for the times. This is important stuff, given the conditions about immigrants today. It was adapted by the director Jesse Bernstein who told me he only shortened it. Was it more tedious in the original? I wonder.
Also, the venue at Arch Street Meeting House, a historical Quaker building, consisted of several rows of backed wooden benches where it was challenging to sit comfortably. Perhaps that was the reason for the choice of this venue. We’re not supposed to feel comfortable.
“The Melting Pot” by Israel Zangwill at Theatre Ariel and Philadelphia Artists’ Collective being performed at Arch Street Meeting House, 320 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, 610-667-9230, Info@TheatreAriel.org thru November 8, 2026
