JTC’s Ministry of Special Cases

“The Ministry of Special Cases”

The Jewish Theatre Collaborative has once again brought a little-known story of Jewish history to life with its Page2Stage season focused on a novel, The Ministry of Special Cases,  at the Milagro Theatro (525 SE Stark, Portland), where JTC is “in residence.”

Set in 1976 at the dawn of Argentina’s “Dirty War,” the novel and the play explore the surreal era during which about 30,000 people “disappeared.”

The world that swirls around the story’s main characters is surreal, Kafkaesque. Kaddish, whose mother was a whore involved in the sex trade (which most members of the Jewish community are mortified to acknowledge the community had a role in) and his traditional wife, Lillian, are struggling to raise their teenage son in world of inflation and political instability. Then their son becomes one of the disappeared.

The play continues at 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 pm Sundays March 14 through April 11.

Tickets are $30 and are available at jewishtheatrecollaborative.org.