Theatre Royal Haymarket 8 February – 19 March. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
“Do not holocaust me!!”
After the funeral of their grandfather, which one of them missed, three grandchildren spend the night in a cramped apartment trying to broach, or avoid, the subject of who should inherit Poppy’s chai. Daphna (Ailsa Joy), loudly devout and intelligent thinks it should be hers, because of its religious meaning, while Liam (Ilan Goodman), liberal and atheist, wants it for romantic and historic reasons. Jonah (Jos Slovick) just wants to keep the peace. Throw Liam’s non-Jewish girlfriend Melody (Antonia Kinlay) into the mix and the stage is set for an evening of vicious, petty and hysterical conflict.
Joshua Harmon’s lines are full of bile and venom, and portray those bitter arguments that can only happen between people who love and know each other too well. Daphna and Liam are mirror images of each other, one clinging on to her culture desperately and the other exploring new cultures to give their lives meaning. Both think the other judgemental and scornful and even use the same events as examples of the other’s disdain.
The quiet moments in between each round of verbal battering are exquisite, with the actors’ facial expressions and body language speaking volumes. When everyone has caught their breath, it all kicks off yet again, usually because of Daphna. As the arguments grow more frantic, the laughs come faster and bigger. These are very bad Jews indeed. Insults about the holocaust and the Nazis are thrown about, drawing gasps and howls of laughter from the audience.
Goodman is brilliant as Liam, uptight and quickly unravelling into a stuttering mess before melting down and becoming as vehement as Daphna. In one sublime moment he attacks her with a toothbrush, mind you, I think anybody would. Joy is a force of nature, playing Daphna like a hyperactive, manipulative teenager, always looking for weaknesses and eying her victims slyly before pouncing with her next verbal attack. Slovick has the quietest role as Jonah, mainly reacting to the louder characters with frustrated huffs and puffs, but proves that still waters run deep in the wonderfully measured final scene, which caused a fair bit of sniffling in the audience. Kinlay’s Melody is stereotypically WASPish, sweet and blonde. You can’t help feeling sorry for her, trapped in the apartment with such quick-witted people. She almost steals the whole show with her opera singing. Words fail me – simply hilarious.
Amongst the laughs this play has a lot to say about cultural identity, religion and family relationships, but most of all it is funny – bitingly, viciously funny. Arguments at home will feel third rate after this.