BAD JEWS Written by Joshua Harmon. Directed by Greg Karvellas, with Oli Booth, Lara Lipschitz, Glen-Biderman-Pam and Ashley Carine de Lange. At The Fugard Theatre until December 31 TRACEY SAUNDERS reviews
FAMILIES – you can;t live with them, can’t live without them. For many, as the end of the year approaches, family gatherings of some or other nature are inevitable and Bad Jews is a reminder of how very badly they can go.
Karvellas describes them as “treacherous and incendiary” affairs and over the course of the evening such an affair unravels and combusts before us. The night after they have buried the patriarch of the family three cousins are thrown together in an apartment. The apartment itself is as much of a character in the play as the cast. Stylishly decorated in a building on the Upper East side with a bathroom view of the Hudson River the setting is quintessentially New York.
Radomsky has created a set with his usual attention to detail and all that is lacking is the smell of toasted bagels. Jonah, Liam and Daphna are the grandchildren of a Holocaust survivor. Each holds their Jewish lineage and tradition with varied intensity and their relationships with each other and their faith make for searingly funny and harshly sobering insights.
While the heart of the argument between the family members centres around a sacred piece of religious jewellery with more sentimental and historical than monetary value, it is the value they give to their cultural identity that is in the balance. The exploration of who inherits what and why is deeper than an item of gold. The importance of remembering the Holocaust and how one does that in a meaningful way is a bone of contention between them.
Bad Jews was the play that secured Harmon a place on the Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights program after three unsuccessful attempts. Listening to the script it is easy to see why this caught the attention of renowned playwright Christopher Durang.
The genesis for the play came to Harmon when he attended a Holocaust memorial event where the addresses by the grandchildren of survivors of the Holocaust left him questioning who should tell the stories of the survivors.
He examines the impact of a history that is so intrinsically part of Jewish identity and according to recent research the trauma is even carried in genetic DNA. He has acknowledged that the play is written from a questioning perspective and there are no trite answers. Cultural relevance 101 is not solved and the challenges of maintaining ancient traditions in the midst of an increasingly secular modern society is not answered, but rather held up for examination and exploration.
As with many well-written scripts nothing is quite as it seems and the denouement of the play ensure that this is more than just a high-end family drama with religious overtones.
The young cast gives their all and are bound to settle into their characters as they evolve over the run of the play, such is the richness of each one. Booth is splendid in his role as the more sober minded brother, Jonah. He appears to be the more retiring, less confrontation and ambitious of the siblings. Desperate to keep the peace at any cost he attempts to console his volatile cousin and placate his angry brother in their ongoing feud. His dialogue during the play is minimal and this relative silence imbues his final pronouncement with a sombre and meaningful weight.
For Daphna played with fiery passion by Lipschitz her connection to her faith is the cornerstone of her identity. She is Jewish to her core and is vociferous in her commitment to observing her faith to the letter. Her outbursts are frequent and vociferous and pitched at a volume and intensity that you cannot ignore. At times the sheer audacity of her vocal tirades is experienced as a physical onslaught. She stands firm in what she believes and is unshakeable.
Her confrontation with her cousin is blistering. What begins as simmering resentment, barbed comments and subtle digs rises to a crescendo of insults and vicious verbal attacks. She is exhausting and Biderman Pam as the recipient of her rage seems to absorb it with a seething acceptance until even he reaches breaking point.
He was almost unrecognisable on stage so complete is his transformation as Liam, the “bad jew” of the piece. His flirtation with Christmas festivities and other non-Jewish activities is the subject of one of Daphna’s more colourful tirades. His accent is flawless and his commitment to his character his quite remarkable. The duel between the two of them pits secular against religious Judaism and cultural attrition against tradition as the pair spar with lines of dialogue that are sharp enough to cause physical pain.
As the only gentile on the stage Melody (de Lange) has a difficult task. She is charming and delightful, but don't be fooled by the blond sorority girl image. Her attempts at brokering peace between the cousins is earnest and sincere but ultimately as futile as her offers of making tea.
Her initially measured and level response to Daphna’s tirade where she tries desperately to remind then all that “we are good people” and “just human beings” is rewarded with derision by Daphna’s increasingly shrill and maniacal insults. She brings a sense of humour and a vain attempt at a musical interlude that endears her to the audience.
Karvellas has avoided transposing the play or adapting it for a local audience. He has retained every Upper East side nuance and New York reference and for the most part the cast’s ability to maintain their very distinctive accents is excellent.
Bad Jews has performed in New York and London and when it was initially performed in London Harmon removed one line which spoke volumes. While Daphna berates her cousin for his lack of Jewish identity with the reminder that, “now when it’s safer to be Jewish than it ever has been”, Harmon felt that the climate in Europe in 2014 where security checks outside the theatre were necessary did not support that contention.
The inclusion of the line in this production is a sobering reminder that despite South Africa’s many challenges rampant anti-Semitism is not one of them.
He has allowed the text to speak for itself and The Fugard continues to raise the bar in the quality of fare presented on stage. The production values, directorial skill and commitment of the cast add to the experience which would stand proudly on Broadway or the West End. While emulating another theatrical tradition is not a requirement for great South African theatre, the international standard of this piece is gratifying.
Although the Jewish nature of this family, their values and belief is at the centre of the play, it is the nature of being human and identity in general which are explored.
For Jewish audiences this will resonate on many levels, but it is both accessible and relatable for anyone who isn’t.
One’s connection to family is one of our basic human characteristics and even the lack of those connections is intrinsic to our experience of the world. Bad Jews will have you pondering your connections to family and whether we are more or less than our cultural identity and the lengths we are prepared to go to retain both.
l Tickets: R130. Book: www.com puticket.com