Other

I first saw “Other” over the summer in the Berkshires under its previous title “Out of Character.” I didn’t like it then, and I still don’t like it now. Ari’el Stachel has written this 90 minute one-man play, positing that it explores belonging in America, particularly in regards to his ethnic background and lifelong struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder. Instead, the show is more the self-indulgent monologue of a historically compulsive liar that sprinkles in thinly-veiled Zionism. For a play that mostly conflates identity with geopolitics, it is well-acted. And it tracks that Stachel is a great actor—he did play the part of another race for much of his life. His accent and impression work are outstanding and his projectile volume of spit recalls Broadway’s Jonathan Groff.