As you enter his office, you will find piles of files and papers covering a desk with only hints of the wooden desktop peaking through. Family pictures fill the wall to the left of his desk, while a pile of his novels sits on the floor below. Peering over the pile of papers, he tells the tale of Marty, a 45-year-old lawyer attempting to reunite with his family after learning he might die from a heart condition.
Moorestown resident Norman Shabel, 75, has been practicing law for 44 years. He graduated from Rutgers University Law School and started his career as an assistant county prosecutor of New Jersey. In addition to the time Shabel spent practicing law, he completed 10 novels and a few plays. While his story about Marty is not his autobiography, the play’s main character and Shabel both grew up in Brownsville, which is a section in Brooklyn, and studied law.
“Marty’s Back in Town” takes place in the 1980s and will hit The Adrienna stage in Philadelphia on Nov. 15. The storyline focuses on Marty’s attempt to reconnect with his family who moved from Brownsville to an apartment in Manhattan. Shabel said Marty is the “black sheep of the family.”
“It’s funny, tragic, the whole deal,” said Shabel. “It’s about how families work and don’t work together.”
A fan of written dialogue, Neil Simon and Arthur Miller, Shabel has been writing for 40 years. Between 10 novels, most of Shabel’s legal mysteries are both comedic and tragic.
It was 20 years ago when Shabel wrote “Marty’s Back in Town.” It took him approximately one week to write the play, but it takes longer to refine the dialogue, he said.
Shabel most immigrants moved to Brownsville to start their lives in America. But the era surrounding the Brownsville history, Shabel is trying to express in his play, is mostly gone, he said.
“Most people don’t live in the ghetto like we did,” Shabel said.
Shabel said there are plenty of notable Brownsville-ites who made it pretty big when they left Brownsville. He knows of a few living in the Philadelphia/New Jersey area, he said.
But the story of Marty can connect with both modern families, while sticking to the history of most 1930s upbringings. Shabel said the story is universal for all ages and groups.
“Overall it’s universal. It’s not just about Jews or Yiddish. A Greek family could be the same way, and an Italian family can be the same way,” Shabel said.
The play is at The Adrienna in Philadelphia. General admission tickets are $45. Groups of 10 people or more are $35 per person. The performance begins on Thursday, Nov. 15 and runs to Sunday, Dec. 2. All Thursday and Friday performances start at 7:30 p.m., Saturday performances are at 2 and 7:30 p.m., while Sunday performances are at 2 p.m.
For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit www.martysbackintown.com.
