Baron Berberian Strikes Again with Another Winner!

After a somewhat disappointing experience at the Hamazkayin Mosaic-II concert I was looking forward to seeing Vahe Berberian's latest production Baron Garbis. I've always enjoyed Vahe's plays and stand up comedy routines so I knew I would probably love this play.

The play is very well written. The plot was easy to follow, the message the story was conveying came in loud and clear but in a fairly subtle way. The dialogue between the characters was rich and full of clever and witty discourse. There were only 3 characters but I didn't even realize it until intermission because it was so engaging and entertaining. The characters were so very well developed that I didn't feel the play needed any more characters. The main character, Baron Garbis, was the epitome of the typical Lebanese-Armenian from Bourjhammoud and his manner of speech and disposition on life were a dead on representation of the demographic he symbolized. The humor was very ethnocentric to the Lebanese-Armenian community which I didn't have a problem with since in fact, I found myself laughing almost constantly. However, at intermission I overheard some Persian-Armenians a few rows ahead who were discussing the fact that they didn't get some of the jokes and slang. I guess if it were the other way around and the play had been about a man from Tehran or Isvahan Arevmdahyes wouldn't have been able to relate to everything either. Regardless I could tell at the end of the play that they had enjoyed it.

This play was long overdue...I commend and thank Vahe Berberian for all his hard work. I can't even imagine what a complicated feat it was to not only write this play but to produce it, direct it and execute it night after night. It seems like a lot of hard work and it was nice to see that people were responding and coming out night after night to support his efforts.

A few weeks ago my cousins and I went to see Armen Movisisyan perform at the Barnsdall Theatre and although the place wasn't packed it was nice to see members of our community out on a Sunday evening doing something cultural. Sometimes it's nice to know that there are similar options in the form of plays and concerts that give Armenian families the opportunity to get out of the house on random nights of the week and partake in an Armenian cultural event.

The play Baron Garbis has been such a success that Vahe Berberian recently announced that he will be extending its run. Since there are two different casts performing the play my assumption is that everyone wants to see it a second time with the alternate cast. I know I am!