After a critically-acclaimed sellout season in Melbourne last year, due to popular demand Joshua Harmon’s Broadway and West End hit, Bad Jews returns to St Kilda’s Alex Theatre for limited season from 28 April, before touring to Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.
A beloved grandfather has died and a treasured family heirloom with religious significance is up for grabs in the Feygenbaum family. But who is most deserving of it? Bossy, overbearing, fanatically religious Daphna, who swears she is the most devout Jew in her family?
Her wealthy, less observant cousin Liam, who’s just returned from skiing with his non-Jewish girlfriend, Melody? Or Jonah, Liam’s brother, who would prefer not to get involved in the fight? A cramped Manhattan apartment becomes the setting for a viciously hilarious quarrel about family, faith and legacy as the contenders set at each other’s throats on the night after the funeral.
Bad Jews received its world premiere at Roundabout Underground and was the first production to transfer to the Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre (Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Award nominations, Best Play). The play was a sell out at the Ustinov Studio in Bath when it made its UK premiere last year, earning huge critical acclaim and recently selling out its London season at the St. James Theatre.
Directed by Gary Abrahams, Bad Jews features a tremendously talented Australian cast including Maria Angelico, Anna Burgess, Simon Corfield, and Matt Whitty. The creative team includes Designer Jacob Battista, Lighting Designer Rob Sowinski, Sound Design by Dave Ellis, and Costumes by Kelsey Henderson.
A graduate of the Playwrights Program at Juilliard, Joshua Harmon is under commission from Roundabout Theatre Company and the Lincoln Center Theater. His work has been produced and developed by Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Hangar Theatre, Ars Nova, and Actor’s Express, where he was the 2010-2011 National New Play Network Playwright-in-Residence. He has also received fellowships from MacDowell, Atlantic Center for the Arts, SPACE at Ryder Farm, and the Eudora Welty Foundation.
“Angelico steals the show as Daphna. Giving a performance as dogged and untameable as her character’s frizz of hair, she remains strangely likeable in spite of all the abrasive dysfunction on display” – The Age
Director: Gary Abrahams Featuring: Maria Angelico, Anna Burgess, Simon Corfield, Matt Whitty Designer: Jacob Battista Lighting Designer: Rob Sowinski Sound Design: Dave Ellis Costumes: Kelsey Henderson
Bad Jews
The Alex Theatre, 135 Fitzroy Street, St. Kilda
Season: 28 April – 14 May 2016
Information and Bookings: www.ticketek.com.au
Everest Theatre – Seymour Centre, Corner City Roadd and Cleveland Street, Chippendale (Sydney)
Season: 18 May – 4 June 2016
Information and Bookings: www.seymourcentre.com
Cremorne Theatre – QPAC, Cultural Precinct, Southbank (Brisbane)
Season: 12 – 31 July 2016
Information and Bookings: www.qpac.com.au
Regal Theatre, 474 Hay Street, Subiaco (Perth)
Season: 9 – 14 August 2016
Information and Bookings: www.ticketek.com.au
Image: Anna Burgess, Simon Corfield Maria Angelico, and Matt Whitty feature in Bad Jews – photo by Jeff Busby