Bad Jews

Theatre Royal Brighton, New Road, Monday, October 19, to Saturday, October 24

PAM Ayres once wrote “where there’s a will there’s a sobbing relation”.

But the family row at the heart of her poem is nothing compared to the eruptions that take place in an Upper West Side New York apartment during Joshua Harmon’s 2012 hit off-Broadway and West End play.

Following the funeral of their beloved grandfather Poppy cousins Daphna and Liam begin to argue about who gets the necklace Poppy kept hidden for two years while in a concentration camp.

Throwing oil on the fire are Jonah, Liam’s brother who would rather not get involved, and Liam’s atheist girlfriend Melody who is meeting the family for the first time.

“Joshua has written a very traditionally structured play about a very contemporary issue,” says Michael Longhurst, who directed the first UK production of Bad Jews when it came to Bath in 2014, and 220 performances later is directing a new cast for this first tour.

“It’s all set in one room, in real time, which is not very common these days.

“It is also dropping into the mix something about cultural homogenisation and the value of our heritage which feels incredibly important.

“My subtitle to the play is Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Goldstein?”

Longhurst had a front row seat when it came to the Bad Jews phenomenon in New York back in 2012.

He was directing If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet starring Jake Gyllenhall at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre, just above the 62-capacity Roundabout Underground where Bad Jews premiered.

“We flooded their set,” he laughs referring to a scene in his play which used 4,000 gallons of water to flood the stage.

“We were previewing at the same time so I never got to see their production, but I was aware of the big sensation it was in New York. When the US agent sent me the play with a view to my directing it in the UK I thought it was brilliant, vicious and heartfelt. I had to get involved.”

Starting out in the Ustinov studio space as part of the 2014 summer season at Theatre Royal Bath, the UK take on Bad Jews was so popular it transferred to the West End - first at the St James Theatre, then an extended run at The Arts Theatre.

“Bad Jews was one of the most produced plays in the US last year,” he says. “The play is about family – and it seems to me any family can behave as badly as this one does to each other.

“It’s a real pressure cooker situation. Liam and Daphna are extremists on opposite sides of the spectrum.”

Daphna comes from a fanatically religious perspective and feels entitled to possession of the necklace, while wealthy Liam has come to sit shiva straight from a skiing holiday with Melody.

“You can play with the audience,” says Longhurst. “You can cheer a character one minute, and be appalled by them the next.

“They all think they are good people – all motivated by wanting to do the right thing.”

Harmon was inspired to write the play after going to a Holocaust memorial.

“He was looking around and saw all these people of his generation connecting to an event which happened two generations before,” says Longhurst. “How that was being expressed really primed him to want to explore the importance of heritage and death.

“The characters in the play are a very privileged set of young people. Where their family has come from feels a world away from where they are now.”

The notion of what it means to be Jewish plays a part too.

“Today 70% of male Jews are marrying outside of the Jewish community,” says Longhurst. “It’s a hugely high statistic – Judaism has this connection to the past. Being brought up as a Catholic it is not the same.

“I’m not Jewish, and I was nervous about taking on the project initially – but then I’m not Jacobean but I have made a Jacobean play, and I’m not Iraqi and have directed an Iraqi play.

“People have found the play really funny and moving. It’s a testament to this play – there’s an intensity that people can connect to their own cultural heritage.”

Starts 7.45pm, 2.30pm matinees Thurs and Sat, tickets from £14. Call 08448 717650.