Review: Zoetic Stage’s ‘Moses’ Is a Demanding but Moving Journey

David Rosenberg stars in Zoetic Stage’s Florida premiere of Michele Lowe’s “Moses” now playing through Sunday, May 17 at the Adrienne Arsht Center in the Carnival Studio Theater. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography)

Michele Lowe’s “Moses” does not begin by clearly introducing its narrator. Third-person narrators in plays are usually anonymous observers. Sometimes they have a personal connection to the story, but more often they serve as a vehicle to guide the audience through the narrative.

At first glance, that seems to be the role of the character Lowe identifies only as the Man in “Moses,” now having its Florida premiere at Zoetic Stage at the Adrienne Arsht Center.

Zoetic Stage’s “Moses” follows a man confronting the memories of his wife and five children after a devastating fire. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography)

The Man speaks about Moses Schneider in the third person, describing him as if he knew him, as someone who watched tragedy unfold and saw him become what his best friend describes as “a man with no heart.”

At the beginning of the play, the Man describes Moses this way: “Brown pants, brown and white shirt. A nothing. A nobody.”

So perhaps it is that the narrator and Moses are one and the same. Taking a psychological deep dive, is Moses Schneider witnessing his own life? Has he dissociated after suffering severe trauma?

At first, the split is confusing. Who is this narrator? And why is he telling this story in such detail — memories of a boy who once thought he might become a rabbi, and of the grown man who marries the rabbi’s daughter and builds a life with her?

But as the 90-minute one-man drama unfolds, the structure begins to make sense. Moses is so consumed by guilt and grief after a fire kills his wife and five children while he is away that he can recount his life only as if it happened to someone else.

David Rosenberg, who stars in Zoetic Stage’s one-man production of “Moses” wrote “Wicked Child,” which Zoetic Stage presented in 2024. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography)

This is the same person who eventually has it out with God near the fountain at Lincoln Center.

“Where are you? You have wronged me.”

He calls God a coward, a cretin and a hack.

“Just the same thing over and over again. Death. And more death.”

Director Stuart Meltzer has staged the production in the round at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts’ Carnival Studio Theater.

David Rosenberg — a graduate of Juilliard, NYU, and Miami Palmetto Senior High (he states in the program notes), and the playwright whose “Wicked Child” received its world premiere from Zoetic Stage in 2024 — is the Man.

His playing area, designed by Nick Serrano, is a stark square platform surrounded on all four sides by the audience. The space appears abstract, stripped to its essentials. There is one chair, then stagehands quietly bring him another, and then a third at different points in the play. Rebecca Montero’s lighting design and Steve Covey’s projection design helps define the many places Moses inhabits, shifting the mood and focus with subtle changes that suggest everything from cold, city streets to synagogues to the Berkshire woods.

Nick Serrano’s scenic design for “Moses” transforms a bare square platform into a symbol of loss in Zoetic Stage’s Florida premiere of Michele Lowe’s play. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography)

Debbie Richardson’s costume design is similarly understated. Rosenberg is dressed in dark pants, a blue button-down shirt and brown leather, lace-up boots — clothing deliberately nondescript that he could be almost anyone.

Meltzer’s in-the-round staging creates a sense of openness as Rosenberg tells the story. Without calling attention to itself, the focus shifts from one section of the audience to another, so that everyone becomes a witness. No one is allowed to remain a detached observer. One of the pleasures of theater in the round is being able to glance across the stage and see how others are reacting to what is unfolding.

There is another witness in the room.  Early in the play, the narrator asks if there is a rabbi in the audience. It is one of the only directions the playwright gives in her script. The rest she has left open to the director’s interpretation.

In her play’s introduction Lowe writes, “I coach rabbis. I help them write their sermons . . . over the years I’ve worked with about 40 rabbis, and they helped inspire this story.”

For this production, Zoetic Stage invited rabbis from across South Florida to participate throughout the run. Seated among the audience and miked to be heard, they answer several questions in real time before falling silent when Moses asks what may be an unanswerable question: whether God makes mistakes.

In Zoetic Stage’s “Moses,” grief, faith and memory intersect in an intimate one-man drama. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography)

Another quiet but essential presence is Orin Jacobs, whose live clarinet playing drifts in and out of the production. The plaintive melodies are mournful yet comforting. They also break up the long spoken passages.

While one-person shows are often built to showcase an actor’s shape-shifting skills, Lowe’s script, Meltzer’s direction and Rosenberg’s performance use the many supporting characters as a means of deepening Moses’ story.

Family members, rabbis, strangers, a best friend and his inquisitive wife, an insurance adjuster, a tattoo artist and Julie — the woman who eventually helps pull Moses back toward life — all serve the larger narrative.

This is not a solo show built around theatrical impersonation. Rosenberg never falls into the “watch how I do this character now” trap. His focus remains on Moses — impossible to handle grief, numbness, questions about faith, the meaning of life and death, and how he will survive to a reawakening.

Grounded in Jewish ritual, language and questions of faith, Michele Lowe’s “Moses” follows one man’s search for meaning after devastating loss.(Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography)

The play is not flawless. There is an overwhelming amount to digest. Moses’ story encompasses catastrophic loss, a spiritual crisis, the loss of his insurance settlement in the 2008 stock market crash, a suicide attempt, a year of living in a Honda Civic, an escape from New York, and a move to Massachusetts, where he learns to make sourdough bread and becomes known for his English scones and Irish soda bread.

At times, the accumulation of events threatens to overburden the play. Recurring images help anchor the story: fire and snow, light bulbs and tattoos, bread and broken electrical wiring, and the Hebrew letter “vav,” which connects one story to the next.

Then there are two objects tied to Moses’ children: Pinky, a child’s pink toy horse, and a yarmulke belonging to his eldest son. Both become agents to memories Moses wants to keep locked away yet hold them close.

Directed by Stuart Meltzer, Zoetic Stage’s “Moses” features David Rosenberg in a one-man play that explores faith, memory and survivor’s guilt. (Photo by Morgan Sophia Photography)

At times, “Moses” feels more like a novel than a stage play. There is a lot to take in, and not every detour feels necessary. The road drifts, then gets back on track.

Through the bobbing and weaving, Rosenberg and Meltzer keep the story grounded even when it seems in danger of losing its way. It eventually leads to a place where Moses can live with his memories rather than run from them. Whether that destination is enough to justify the journey may depend on how strongly the play’s world of ritual, language and faith resonates.

WHAT: Zoetic Stage’s production of “Moses” by Michele Lowe.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; and 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Through Sunday, May 17.

WHERE: The Adrienne Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

COST: $66.69-$72.54 (includes fees)

INFORMATION:  (305) 949-6722 and www.zoeticstage.com.

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