Jewish family drama waylaid by big issues

Menier Chocolate Factory

The revival of Ryan Craig‘s 2011 play The Holy Rosenbergs was well received by the critics. Most felt the ‘issues’ were laid on a bit thick at times but all agreed it covered important matters (‘brave and intelligent’ – WhatsOnStage), was funny at times (‘sitcom-funny’ – Standard), and well acted (‘finely wrought performances’ – The Times). Many brought attention to its similarities to the plays of Arthur Miller, particularly All My Sons. The cast is led by Nicholas Woodeson and Tracy-Ann Oberman  as the couple preparing for the funeral of their son, lost in Middle East war. Woodeson’s character is also struggling with the failure of his business. Dorothea Myer-Bennett was praised for her role as a lawyer controversially investigating human rights abuses in the war on Gaza. Lindsay Posner‘s direction ‘sets a cracking pace’ (The Stage) but most critics felt the ending was a let down.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ⭑⭑⭑⭑

WhatsOnStage‘s Sarah Crompton said: ‘the play’s strength is that it grounds its arguments so firmly in a family, bound by tradition and love but separated by politics.’ She also declared: ‘The cast are simply superb’. She ended: ‘the final confrontation between Ruth and her father doesn’t quite ring true. But Posner and his cast make sure the tension never lessens.  The Holy Rosenbergs is an imperfect play, but a brave and intelligent one too.’

David Jays for The Guardian began: ‘A death in the family is always a reckoning. In this absorbing revival of Ryan Craig’s play from 2011, it is also an unravelling, one in which morality and geopolitics play out on a highly patterned carpet in a Jewish suburban dining room.’ He pointed out: ‘Craig describes his plays as “comic tragedies”, and there’s certainly humour in Lindsay Posner’s finely acted production as the Rosenberg parents, never knowingly under-catered, frantically paper over the cracks. Goujons are lauded, macaroons and marble cake foisted on the unwilling.’

Matt Wolf for LondonTheatre looked back at the original National Theatre production of 2011: ‘The difference is a production from Lindsay Posner that cuts far more deeply than the text did first time round, coupled with a realisation that the central issues of the play occupy today’s headlines with a gathering ferocity reflected in the commitment of Posner’s first-rate cast.’ He noted: ‘Words, of course, can wound as well, and it’s been some time since I’ve been to a play where one remark or another made a rapt audience so audibly draw breath.’ He recorded: ‘You watch enthralled at Craig’s skill in layering the debate, all the while lamenting the seeming eternal nature of the arguments here laid forth.’

The Times’ Clive Davis was amused as well as moved: ‘This is an evening where a debate about Israel, the morality of war and the meaning of community can suddenly land a sharp blow to the funny bone(…)Time and again, you find yourself laughing through the pain while admiring the finely wrought performances from a cast led by Tracy-Ann Oberman.’

Aleks Sierz at The Arts Desk called it a ‘brilliantly provocative play’. He noted: ‘Lindsay Posner’s well-focused production, which balances pain with humour, is set in a recognizably real suburban interior, designed in detail by Tim Shortall, and fields some emotionally truthful acting.’

3 stars ⭑⭑⭑

Franco Milazzo for BroadwayWorld concluded that it was ‘a sturdy, occasionally engaging examination of family, faith and political conscience. Yet in trying to say everything at once, this revival ends up diluting its strongest ideas. In a play so preoccupied with the question of who we are, the most surprising thing is how hard it is to pin down exactly what this one wants to be.’

The Standard‘s Nick Curtis summed up: ‘This is a serious, and at times seriously funny, bid to show how events in Gaza impact Jews elsewhere, but also a clumsy one.’ He explained: ‘On one level David and Lesley Rosenberg (Nicholas Woodeson and Tracy-Ann Oberman) are a sitcom-funny, kvetching suburban couple but they are also preparing for the funeral of their son Danny, a pilot with the Israel Defense Forces, killed in the first Gaza War’ and ‘the way argument is loaded into the play feels forced, particularly in a blatantly engineered second-act showdown’.

Dave Fargnoli of The Stage thought: ‘Though Craig’s writing is contrived – with various authority figures dropping in at the Rosenbergs’ Edgware home to deliver eloquent speeches advocating specific viewpoints – the piece remains thought-provoking. Director Lindsay Posner sets a cracking pace that never flags, smoothly segueing between each set-piece debate while drawing out the text’s sly, dark humour.’

Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski noted: ‘Posner’s production is conservative in its naturalism – the songs are the most flamboyant thing about it – but he gets fine performances out of his cast, particularly Dorothea Myer-Bennett as Ruth, whose fiery dedication to justice masks her vulnerability as a human being.’ Like other critics, he pointed out the similarities to Arthur Miller’s writing: ‘There’s a Miller-esque tone to the domestic side of it, with Woodeson’s struggling caterer David having a whiff of Willy Loman to him as he blithely fails to grasp that he’s yesterday’s man.’ He complained: ‘The trouble is that for all its bracing relevance, the Israel/Gaza stuff is so bombastic as to overwhelm the more nuanced family tragedy.’

Critics’ average rating 3.7⭑

The Holy Rosenbergs can be seen at The Menier Chocolate Factory until 2 May. Buy tickets directly from the theatre

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