"Bad Jews" presented by Stage West

BAD JEWS
AT
STAGE WEST

The Travelling Toe and Dear Friend attended the Sunday afternoon performance of "Bad Jews" at Stage West.

The play was written by Joshua Harmon. The play had it's world premiere at Roundabout Underground, located in NYC, IN 2013. Since that time it has been performed at various venues in the US and abroad as well.

Joshua Harmon
playwright

A brief overview of the story line is as follows: 

The night after their grandfather’s funeral, three cousins engage in a verbal battle over a family heirloom. In one corner is the unstoppable and self-assured force of “Super Jew” Daphna. In the other, the immovable and entitled object of her secular cousin Liam. And in the middle is Liam’s brother Jonah, trying to stay out of the fray. 

Coming into this squabble between the cousins is Liam's girlfriend, Melody.  She is not Jewish and because of that it becomes a major friction between Liam and Daphna.  What is at the crux of the dispute is who gets custody of the grandfather's Chai symbol necklace.  It is a sacred symbol to the cousins as their grandfather was able to hide it while he was in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. Both he and the Chai necklace survived and now who receives this astonishing symbol of their Faith becomes the focus of their rage and anger. And dare one say, petty jealousy? 

According to Google:

The Chai symbol can be worn by Jews as a medallion around the neck, similarly to other Jewish symbols, such as the Star of David. "the letters of chai add up to 18. For this reason, 18 is a spiritual number in Judaism, and many Jews give gifts of money in multiples of 18 as a result."

Chai Symbol

All four of the actors were very good in their roles.  There is lots of dialogue, especially for Daphna as she goes on her rants.  Joshua is very quite and just wants to be left out of the tug of war between Daphna and Liam.  Melody is the interloper who tries to make everyone get along. There is a very poignant scene at the end of the play that really reflects the love one of the 3 cousins had for the grandfather. 

The only negative of the play noted was that the "F" word is rather over used.  The Travelling Toe realizes that the "F" word provides shock value in a live performance, but it makes one wonder could not the playwright think of any other word to use to express anger and frustration than that one?  Just a thought!

CAST:

                                Jonah                                        Matthew Grondin

                                Daphna                                     Kelsey Milbourn

                                Liam                                          Garret Storms

                                Melody                                       Alexandra Lawrence

Stage West