Belated but welcome UK premiere for Canadian playwright Jason Sherman’s 1996 hit comedy
This original comedy from Canadian Jewish playwright Jason Sherman opens in the classroom of young Hebrew school teacher Rachel Benjamin, where she’s in trouble for her even-handedness over the need for a two-state solution in Israel. But while tackling disputatious parents of pupils and judgemental bosses, she secretly dreams of escape via the movie script she's penned. It tells the arcane story of 17th-century false Messiah Sabbatai Zvi, when he was imprisoned by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and chose conversion to Islam rather than the death sentence, influencing 300 families to follow his example.
Happily for Rachel, her script has been picked up by two producers who can offer practical help and encouragement: nervy, nerdy script doctor David Fine and his more worldly, cynical partner Jeff Bloom. David manages to convince Jeff that Rachel is an ideal candidate for a week-long retreat where they can work intensively with her on her script. Unsurprisingly, there's instant mutual attraction between David and the sparky teacher. There is a problem, however, in David’s unseen fiancée.
Sherman's writing offers a real freshness and immediacy, which is beautifully realised by Emma Jude Harris’s subtle direction. That instant attraction between Max Rinehart’s hesitant David and Jill Winternitz’s bright-as-a-button Rachel is entirely believable. And Michael Feldsher’s down-to-earth Jeff proves the perfect foil with his testy but honest reality check, for himself at least: "I got kids. I can’t afford integrity."
Alys Whitehead’s clever leafy box set with Cheng Keng’s suggestive projections provides a rural setting that is as attractive as it is convincing. The writing table and chairs, complete with the satisfying clack of the typewriter and draft script ideas, look beguilingly at home, as if a forest glade is an ideal place to get your head down, even if what you are writing about is contentious and provocative.
So it proves here, both in the back and forth about Sabbatai Zvi (including the graphic, though historically authentic, idea of making physical love to the Torah in its Scroll by one of Zvi’s adherents, Nathan of Gaza) and in the arguments over Israel/Palestine and the occupied West Bank.
This brings us, rather fittingly, to the climax of the show and to the last of the quartet of fine performances. If David has a difficult wingman in Jeff, then Rachel is blessed with her warm, elderly father Wolf, ensconced in his armchair, in whom she confides regularly, basking in the healing glow of his affection and understanding. Jonathan Tafler, an iconic Jewish actor with so many magical performances to his credit over the decades, turns in a beauty here, all the more for his role's quiet understatement. He may look beneficent, but his revelation that he fought fiercely in Israel’s War of Independence is a sobering reminder of the ongoing conflict.
At almost three hours, The Retreat is rather long, but it's well worth your time and attention.
By Judi Herman
Photos by Ali Wright
The Retreat runs until Saturday 13 May. 7.30pm, 3pm (Sat & Sun). From £15. Finborough Theatre, SW10 9ED. finboroughtheatre.co.uk