Reviewer: Christine Stanton
Writers: Ryan Craig, Amy Rosenthal, Alexis Zegerman
Director: Kayla Feldman
“Homely & Humorous”
4 / 5
The Arc: A Trilogy of New Jewish Plays are individual snapshots of three key moments in any individual’s life – birth, death and marriage. Compiled by three different writers and shown as individual short performances, the objective is to look at these milestones through a Jewish lens and pay homage to the heritage, tradition and cultural upbringing that surrounds them – which all three shows successfully convey in this enjoyable, easy-to-watch collection.
Amy Rosenthal’s ‘Birth’ is the first show from the trilogy – featuring happily married Michael (Nigel Planer) and Linda (Caroline Gruber) sat indoors doing a crossword after finally sending everyone home after a family get together. They are surprised with uninvited guest Naomi (Dorothea Myer-Bennett) who calmly confronts Michael about him inducing her birth a month early 50 years ago, seemingly causing a knock-on effect of unpreparedness for the rest of her life. The comfortable set up and humorous conversations are a brilliant start to the light-hearted evening, with Planer’s depiction of a friendly yet semi-grumpy old man an excellently recognisable character. Rosenthal does well at crafting the long-time married dynamic between the couple, perfectly scripting the subtle contentless and predictability between them in their interactions. Gruber’s unexpected monologue at the end is suddenly philosophical and sentimental which contrasts slightly with the prior interactions but doesn’t feel too out of place as a concluding scene as Gruber recites it splendidly.
‘Marriage’ by Alexis Zegerman (my personal favourite) showcases two people – Eva (Abigail Weinstock) & Adrian (Sam Thorpe-Spinks) awkwardly stumbling through the hurdles of a blind date. Until they meet for the first time at the restaurant, they have no idea that the other one is also Jewish, bar a few minor potential indicators. Both headstrong in their opinions on children, religion and what they are looking for in a partner – it doesn’t seem to be going very well, until God – better known as Godfrey (Nigel Planer) steps in to encourage them in procreating to help continue the diminishing Jewish bloodline. Contributing further to the witty script and interesting narrative, Weinstock & Thorpe-Spinks are absolutely fantastic in their roles, with excellent comedic timing and realistic, natural acting talent. The attitude of inattentive waitress (Myer-Bennet) brings another layer of humour, while Godfrey is a great ridiculous addition which instead of entering surreal territory, allows the rest of the characters interactions to become even more relatable.
Finally ‘Death’ by Ryan Craig closes out the evening – a storyline you’d expect to be depressing or morbid based on the subject matter, but is instead poignant, funny and engaging. Golda Meir (a child’s hamster) has died, and one tiny coffin from Amazon later – father Adam (Dan Wolff) is ready to host the burial, with some help from his reluctant family. Dan (Adrian Schiller) is a doctor who helped lead son Adam’s ex-wife through cancer treatment – so naturally his bedside manner is a key requirement for the hamster funeral. Wolff’s sibling dynamic with sister Leah (Abigail Weinstock) is brilliantly realistic and the family structure between all three clear and comedic. There are practicalities littered through the script about funeral arrangements and traditions, but overall it’s more of an exploration into family and connection – which is portrayed wonderfully throughout the script.
While all three plays are designed to be separate – with their differing characters and storylines, the underlying thread that connects them all, other than the Judaism link and recurring actors, is that they are all brilliantly warm and relatable. This homely feeling automatically connects the audience to the characters and allows the humorous interactions to resonate throughout no matter what background or religion you identify with.
Runs until 26 August 2023
Photo Credits: Danny With A Camera
RatedReviewed 
Completed 🙂
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