Jewish Repertory Theatre’s first season in its new theater space continues with two one-act plays by two modern masters.

JRT founder and artistic director Saul Elkin says he chose the pieces because he “likes the contrast … the seriousness of The Jewish Wife, a brief one-act set in Germany in 1938 in which a Jewish wife determines to leave her non-Jewish physician husband because she fears her presence will injure his career, and the sweet and often humorous dialogue between two senior citizens in The Duck Variations on life and love and ecology.”

The Jewish Wife was written by Bertolt Brecht and Duck Variations is by David Mamet. “Again, I like the contrast,” Elkin says of the two Jewish playwrights, “setting an earlier 20th century writer against a very contemporary one.”

Elkin directs The Jewish Wife, which stars Megan Callahan and Tim Newell, who both appeared in last season’s Lebensraum (also directed by Elkin), and each played a number of different characters. Elkin was so taken with Newell’s variety of characters, “especially older men,” that Elkin has Newell acting in both pieces.

Not to be outdone in the double-duty department, Elkin acts opposite Newell in Duck. “I have pleasant memories of having previously directing the Brecht and acting in the Mamet,” Elkin tells.

The Duck Variations is directed by Peter Palmisano, who directed JRT’s Halpern and Johnson, another two-hander that featured Elkin (with Jim Maloy).

“Once again, these are two aging men and, once again, they meet in a park to converse,” says Palmisano. “In this case, however, there is no evident history between the two.”

Ducks, he adds, “are are often mentioned and often stimulate the dialogue, nudging it in a specific direction, but they are not the only subject covered. Indeed, the ducks seem to motivate these two gentlemen toward a wide variety of topics.”

The Duck Variations is written “with absolutely no stage directions. So it offers a nearly blank slate upon which the director and his actors may freely design the show,” Palmisano says. “When I first read the play, my reaction was, ‘What the heck can I do with this?’ But as I continued to read and re-read it, the answer became clear: ‘Anything I want!’”

Audiences who saw the JRT season opener Imagining Madoff “will have another viewing experience,” Elkin says, as the new theater will be rearranged and reoriented with “two very lovely and different sets” designed by Ron Schwartz.

The Jewish Wife and The Duck Variations double feature opens February 9 at the Maxine and Robert Seller Theatre in the JCC Benderson Family Building. (688-4114 ext. 391.)

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