Underneath the Lintel

Holly and I went to the theatre the other night to see Len Berger’s Underneath the Lintel. I am a long time fan of the program West Wing and wanted to see Richard Schiff, known to TV viewers as the White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler in person. I think I first noticed Schiff in the John Travolta movie Michael. In one of final scenes of the movie Schiff plays an Italian waiter who describes the menu to William Hurt’s character in a very charming way. We have angel hair pasta!

Underneath the Lintel is the story of a Danish librarian who goes in search of a book borrower who anonymously returned a Baedeker travel guidebook over 100 years late to the library. An ancient myth is unlocked when a clue is scribbled in the margin of the book and an unclaimed dry-cleaning ticket begins the journey to track the person who returned the book. The quest takes him on a life changing journey across time and the planet.

Richard Schiff comes on onstage so casually and so much like a librarian that I was not sure the play has started. Apparently, we are in a lecture hall as the librarian begins to take evidence out of a suitcase one by one. He is showing the audience what he has collected about an unseen man and begins his narrative of his travels. As the play goes on we learn the myth of the Wandering Jew, a cobbler who denied Jesus shelter "underneath his lintel'' as Jesus stumbled on the way to Golgotha. The cobbler is condemned to wander without rest, without contact with other human beings and without any name or identity.

For me, Underneath the Lintel is about identity and how we leave our mark on the world. What is my purpose in life and how will the world know I was here and lived? Thought provoking questions! I love it when I leave a movie or a play with something to think about in the days that follow. A sign of a quality production! Go see this one!