The Ensemble Theatre’s first play for 2009 is an ambitious start to the year. Under the direction of Associate Artistic Director Mark Kilmurry the Ensemble theatre is putting on a production of the stage adaptation of one of the best selling memoirs of all time, Mitch Albom’s 1997 Tuesdays with Morrie.

In an inspired decision Mitch Albom, a working sports journalist at the time, put on a tape recorder to record his meetings with his old University Professor Morrie Schwartz, who was sharing his life’s wisdom, as he was going through the last stages of dying from Motor Neurone (Lou Gehrig’s) Disease.Albom transcribed and edited the tapes into book form and sent them off to a publisher, in the hope that the profits from the book would help pay the ailing Professor’s medical bills. His personal mitzvah of a book ended up selling more more than 11 million copies world-wide…

The current Ensemble production has been taken from the 2002 Off Broadway production directed by David Esbjornson and co-authored by Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher. Kilmurry’s production serves the play well and gives audiences a well staged and enriching drama.

The heart of this play is Professor Schwartz’s (1916-1995) charismatic character. Born of Jewish Russian descent he grew up in the Jewish tenements of New York City and went to become an influential and celebrated professor of sociology at Brandeis University. His flamboyant, creative and non-conformist approach inspired many of his students, and saw him live up to his own personal epitaph, ‘A Teacher to the Last’.

Many quotes and stories flow from seeing the play, including his radical concept of a living funeral which he put into practice. Seeing his doctor had given him notice of his impending death, his “’last, great journey”, he arranged for the people close to him to give him a living funeral!

The prized role of Professor Schwartz was well portrayed by Daniel Mitchell who took over the role from his father Warren after he became unavailable. Mitchell’s Professor Schwartz holds court from his favourite large brown living room armchair, often covering himself with a large shawl.

Glenn Hazeldine delivered an assured performance as Mitch Albom. The stage version sees Hazeldine’s Mitch play the role of the narrator, often addressing the audience from a raised platform above Morrie’s living room.

Included in Brian Nickless’s set design is a large, raised back-stage screen in which some of the lesson headings are transcribed. An image of a beautiful bright red Japanese maple tree stays projected on the screen, a motif for the ethereal, transient nature of life.

Towards the end of the play, the dying professor tells his favourite student, “One doesn’t die…one lives on in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here”. With this latest variation on Tuesdays With Morrie, Professor Schwartz’s lives on, brighter than ever.

Tuesdays With Morrie is playing the Ensemble Theatre, 78 McDougal Street, Kirribilli until Sunday 15th February. Bookings- 99290644 or www.ensemble.com.au