2026 marks the inaugural Jewish Culture Month, a nationwide celebration of almost 1000 years of British-Jewish history. Established by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, its programme shows off exhibitions, plays, films and much more celebrating Jewish life across the United Kingdom. I was lucky enough to catch this week’s rehearsed reading of Dough – Edinburgh’s contribution, organised by the Edinburgh Jewish Cultural Centre.
Dough was first presented as a full production at A Play, A Pie and A Pint in 2008 at Òran Mór, but aside from a similar rehearsed reading at the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre in 2019, this is its first outing since then. It was written by acclaimed playwright, director and producer David Neville, who also performs in the piece for the first time (although he admits to having been an understudy during the initial run).
The play tells the story of Albie and Isa, older Jewish bakers clinging on in an increasingly derelict area of Glasgow. Their fragile friend Ivor is one of their last remaining loyal customers, the community that once sustained them having long since moved out to the suburbs and become reliant on supermarkets. Young Rashida, whose family owns the bakery and surrounding properties, is keen to redevelop the building, with or without Albie and Isa.
As we are reminded at the start of the reading, while the play is set with a wonderful specificity in Glasgow – the Scottish accent lends a unique tone to the smatterings of Yiddish – it could be set anywhere. It is a universal story of decline and gentrification, youthful ambition and aged perseverance, communities coming together and communities crumbling. One character sighs, ‘people come and people go, and then new people come’ – it could be the strapline for the whole show.
This performance of Dough was apparently originally intended as a full production, but the Culture Month’s short timescales necessitated the switch to a rehearsed reading. While it would have been wonderful to see the play fully developed on stage (David says there are no plans currently to revive it as such), its structure and setting lend themselves well to a simpler telling. The minimal direction and props still provoke laughter and cringing in all the right places, and the audience can virtually smell the freshly baked rye loaves.
David did acknowledge an element of rewriting was required to change the original character of Rashid to Rashida to accommodate Glasgow actor Iman Akhtar, but the change brings a new and interesting dynamic to proceedings. The younger, female character may hold all the financial power, but she is physically loomed over by Albie and Ivor – two older men – even when their intent is unthreatening.
As a story which ultimately champions community cohesion and getting along, and the bonds we all share over good baking, Dough is a perfect presentation as part of Jewish Culture Month. However, in today’s more fractious, divided times, it also seems to come from a very different, more hopeful era, and one wonders if it would (or could) be written in the same way again today.
David Neville will be directing a production of Freud’s Last Session at the Tabard Theatre in London in the autumn. This intriguing story of a fictional meeting between C S Lewis and Sigmund Freud – written by Mark St. Germain – was recently turned into a film starring Anthony Hopkins. David will also be presenting more theatre with the Edinburgh Jewish Cultural Centre as part of their Edinburgh Festival Open Day on 23 August.