Emanate is a new theatre company that seeks to showcase new plays that loosely embrace and touch upon Jewish themes. Currently running at the Soho Theatre is a programme lasting a little over one hour that contains three such short plays that reference birth, marriage and death, respectively. The cast is uniformly excellent but the material, while always eloquent and intelligent, is uneven, reflecting the fact that having to have your say in only twenty minutes can be a mixed blessing and no easy task to execute.
Amy Rosenthal opens proceedings with a meditation on perceptions of trauma. A couple winding down after their fiftieth wedding anniversary are doorstopped by a younger woman who claims to be a victim of birth trauma because fifty years ago she was delivered a month early by the obstetrician-husband who wanted to get away on holiday. A debate follows on what constitutes real trauma and how far modern concepts of victimhood have maybe debased the term. A long monologue by the wife, somewhat unrelated to the rest of the play, suggests that all of life involves losing hope and starting again in different forms of re-birth. The themes are really too large to be developed sufficiently in the time available, but the piece is elevated by the work of Caroline Gruber, Dorothea Myer-Bennett, Nigel Planer, all of whom offer performances of nuance and fine detail.
The second play by Alexis Zegerman offers a more recognisably Jewish set of themes and tropes, and seems a better fit with the time and format available. Abigail Weinstock and Sam Thorpe-Spinks embark upon a mostly disastrous first-date, full of unfortunate gaffes and aggravated by an off-hand waitress and an eavesdropping fellow-diner (another two nicely calculated performances from Myer-Bennett and Planer). The awkwardness of the dialogue is highly plausible and wryly amusing; and the integration of Jewish cultural themes is skilfully achieved reflecting the ambivalence of the two characters over their cultural inheritance. What works less well is the clumsy elevation of Planer from a character in the drama into – literally – ‘deus ex machina’, seeking to encourage marriage and procreation. For all Planer’s comic timing, this remains an unnecessary and clumsy addition to a piece that is otherwise truly authentic in feel. Once more it is the quality of the acting that encourages the audience to give the benefit of the doubt.
The final contribution, from Ryan Craig, takes us into a high-pressured Jewish family where Adrian Schiller’s successful oncologist rubs against his two children, played by Weinstock and Dan Wolff, both of whom in different ways have suffered from his preference of professional over family obligations. This fairly predictable scenario is enlivened by some absurdist touches which focus the action on the (apparent) death and later funeral of a pet hamster, named Golda Meir. The final scene in which the Kaddish is intoned over the hamster’s miniature coffin, purchased from Amazon, is a droll and piquant ending to a piece which offers some interesting commentary on Jewish attitudes to life and death.
I doubt whether any of these short plays will in the longer term rate highly in the output of their talented authors. But this is still a diverting and continuously engaging evening, sustained on the back of quality performances from a super cast; so audiences will not be disappointed.