Julia Pascal's telling of the King David Hotel bombing is complicated, but well worth a trip down the rabbit hole

At first sight, 12:37 is perhaps a puzzling name for a play. It refers to the precise minute on 22 July 1946, when the bombing of the King David Hotel by Jewish activists killed 91 people of many nationalities. The response to the bombers’ warnings to evacuate the area was – fatally – misunderstood or not taken seriously or simply too slow.

Julia Pascal powers through the complicated, often brutal years of the 20th century that led to that day – that minute – focusing her story on the lived experience of a family of Irish Jews. The odyssey of the brothers Paul and Cecil Green, plus their mother Minnie, takes them from 1935 Dublin to the founding of the State of Israel in 1947, via London 1936 and the battle against Oswald Mosley and his fascists on Cable Street.

It’s riveting, but complicated. Pascal is passionate about the history behind the action of her play and has researched it exhaustively. Happily, she has recruited a multi-talented cast of just five who, between them, play (and sing) numerous parts.

Older brother Paul (Alex Cartuson) is the sexy one; Cecil the younger (Danann McAleer) is a would-be chazen (Hebrew cantor). Both are doctors, at the insistence of their mother. Firm matriarch Minnie (Ruth Lass) has scraped and saved and shamed her sons into this high-profile lucrative career. It follows from a childhood of threats and corporal punishment from their father and grandfather to study Torah and Hebrew, while Minnie cajoled them into scholastic achievement.

Crucially, it allows the brothers to make life-and-death decisions from the get-go, where they actually toss a coin to decide on euthanasia – for the smallest of human patients and then a family member. The significance of this becomes crucial as the action progresses. Cartuson plays up charisma wonderfully well, but it's McAleer who plays brilliantly for sympathy.

The dialogue is laced with Yiddish, Hebrew, Irish and more, which takes no prisoners and is both enticing and, at times, infuriatingly obscure (though the cast are always eloquent). So, Pascal unfolds her ambitious account of these wandering Jews: their quest, their vital need for a Jewish homeland, and the horrifying price they and the victims of the bombing pay for it.

It’s a quest for love and sex, for revenge and retribution. Lisa O’Connor, a second authentic Irish voice to accompany McAleer, is Eileen O’Reilly, Paul’s first love – beguiling from the get-go dancing an Irish jig. She is equally convincing as Rina Goldberg, a traumatised survivor of the concentration camps, bravely making a living as comedian in London when the brothers encounter her on stage in the East End.

Lass is magnificent as feisty Jewish matriarch Minnie and almost chilling as would-be settler Shoshana Liebovicz, who nails her reason for the undercover action that leads to the destruction on 22 July: “They [the British] hate the Arabs. They hate the Jews. They love us killing each other.”

Pascal has taken a brave decision to direct herself, but her work here largely justifies that decision. The action, although so intricate in the second half that it can be hard to follow, is still devastating and powerful and brings Pascal’s message home.

By Judi Herman

Photos by Yaron Lapid

12:37 runs until Wednesday 21 December. 7.30pm, 3pm (Sat & Sun only). £23, £10 concs. Finborough Theatre, SW10 9ED. finboroughtheatre.co.uk