(seen at the performance on 27th January 2025)
By random chance, the only date the monkey could see this play happened to be 27th January 2025. “Holocaust Memorial Day” and 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. The production chose not to mention any of this, but it gave the text an added poignancy this particular evening.
That isn’t to say writer Nathan Englander treats the subject with any reverence. Indeed, Florida based Phil (Joshua Malina) is a font of tasteless humour on the subject, a cornerstone of the piece.
Phil and wife Debbie (Caroline Catz) are non-practising Jews, with a college son Trevor (Gabriel Howell). They live a wealthy life (Anna Fleischle does an excellent job with their kitchen set, Sally Ferguson on lighting it) and are pretty content.
Also content are Debbie’s long-estranged former best friend Shoshana (Dorothea Myer-Bennett) and husband Yerucham (Simon Yadoo). Religious Jews, living in Israel and raising seven or eight children.
Their visit to Florida is a catalyst for exploring the benefits or otherwise of faith in daily living – Trevor’s “Pastafarian” and youthful generational belief only in Green and Equality issues providing a far wider view.
It ends in a game of “Anne Frank.” Debbie and Shoshana’s teenage invention, where the “Anne” must ask each other person present if they would shield them with their life. Only truth and no tears permitted. A strange way to end an odd play.
With Trevor calling each scene as our manic M.C, we are wrongfooted constantly as the debate unfolds.
It begins as we might expect, Phil and Yerucham clashing on lifestyle and perspective. Malina revealing that he is less superficial than he appears, Yadoo getting more so as he attempts religious sincerity.
Catz and Myer-Bennett had at one time religious observance in common before they diverged. It is fascinating to watch their sisterhood flow and ebb, with a quite remarkable turn of events by the end.
Above it, Howell has his moment too, with a highly credible youthful diatribe expounding his own realities. In its delivery, as in the other set-pieces, director Patrick Marber measures well the speed and intensity.
The conclusion reached is oddly satisfying too. The final message is one relevant to the entire Middle East, that a microscopic amount of flexibility can transform everything.
“I still believe people are good” wrote Anne Frank, though our personal definitions of “good” and how we express them may differ. Englander’s exploration of this, and the effects of acknowledging the fact make a compelling two hours of theatre.
4 stars.
Photo credit: Mark Senior. Used by kind permission.