The Play

If you are interested in staging “The Quarrel” for your theatre contact Apple & Honey Film Corp by calling (310)-556-5639 or emailing quarrel@pacbell.net

Theatrical runs and History:

Two estranged friends, torn apart by personal betrayal and uprooted by war, meet after years of separation. One has become an Orthodox rabbi, the other a secular writer. Their accidental meeting sparks a battle of wits that tests the limits of friendship, faith and tolerance. Engaging as it is timely, The Quarrel wrestles with universal themes of religious faith and moral identity.

Based on a film by Brandes and Telushkin that was originally broadcast on PBS’s American Playhouse and has since won awards in eight different film festivals, both the film and the play are adapted from a short story by the acclaimed Yiddish writer Chaim Grade.

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin is a popular writer and lecturer whose books have made Jewish philosophy, theology, and history accessible to the broad public. David Brandes was the executive producer, co-creator and writer of the Showtime TV series My Life As A Dog. He has written for shows including Fraggle Rock (Jim Henson Productions) and The Strangers (HBO) and produced several films. The

Quarrel stars Reuven Russell (The Sunshine Boys with Mickey Rooney, Advice and Dissent with Eli Wallach), Sam Guncler (The Gathering with Hal Linden, Bug, Law and Order) and Federico Trigo. The Quarrel is directed by Robert Walden, who has earned three LA Critics’ Circle Awards and seven Dramalogue Awards for his directing work. He is a professor at the New School of Drama and has numerous stage and screen acting credits.

The Quarrel is produced by Daniel Gallant, the new executive director of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe; by Matt Okin, founder of Black Box Entertainment; and by Melanie Sylvan, producer of the off-Broadway hit Stitching.

The play sold out an extended run at the Playwrights Theater of New Jersey, and has entertained packed audiences across North America.

Ira Machevsky: Reuven Russell, left, and Sam Guncler, have agreed to disagree in “The Quarrel,” which they’ll perform Sept. 18 at Long Wharf Theatre.

University of Judaism
Los Angeles, CA
Jan 26 through Jan 30 1999
director Robert Walden

Playwrights Theater
Madison NJ
February 18, 1999 through March 14, 1999
director Susan Fenichell

Pacific Theatre
Vancouver, BC Canada
January 25th through February 17, 2007
director Morris Ertman

Rosebud Theatre
Rosebud, Alberta Canada
July 11th through August 25, 2007
director Morris Ertman

Museum of Jewish Heritage
New York, NY
November 14, 2007
Director: Robert Russel

DR2
New York, NY (off Broadway)
September 2, through September 28, 2008
director Robert Walden

Gablestage
Coral Gables Florida
April 24, through May 23, 2010
director Joseph Adler

Readings

Ohev Shalom, Bucks County, PA

“An immensely emotional work…the well-crafted script by David Brandes is riveting.” – Los Angeles Times

“Splendid. A ferocious debate between the religious and secular worlds.” -The Toronto Sun

“Sensitive & haunting.” – Chaim Potok