An eloquent and telling way of examining the current questions facing Israel, Jews and the world

The genesis of Nathan Englander's new play is his self-professed obsession with the Holocaust. So preoccupied, in fact, is he with that time in history that his wife has begun timestamping his mentions of the horrors throughout the day. "Himmler, 9.22am," she is wont to announce wryly, which we discover in a delightfully personal glance into the couple's relationship recounted in the programme of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. (A programme that also features an insightful article about the play taken from the most recent issue of JR.)

Englander's preoccupations are channelled into the stage adaptation of his Pulitzer-shortlisted novella of the same name, which combines the power of his writing with consummate casting and exacting direction by Patrick Marber (Leopoldstadt). Unsurprisingly, given current events, the play now also takes into account the 7 October attacks and Israel’s response, giving it a gripping topicality.

We're introduced to our protagonists – two Jewish American couples, one ultra-Orthodox, the other secular – by Trevor, the teenage son of the latter pair, who acts as a rather caustic compere of the show.

We meet Trevor (Gabriel Howell) in the luxurious Florida apartment belomging to his parents Debbie (Caroline Catz) and Phil (Joshua Malina). The couple is currently awaiting the arrival of Debbie’s childhood bestie Lauren (Dorothea Myer-Bennett) and her husband Mark (Simon Yadoo), who now go by Shoshana (Shosh) and Yerucham (Yuri), as befits their strict religious observance.

Phil is in shorts after cleaning the pool, while Debbie’s outfit is carefully smart casual. She's clearly apprehensive and he's sceptical. When Shosh and Yuri arrive, both are formally dressed – Yuri in the black hat and suit of the Hasidic Jew, tzitzit (prayer tassels) and all, while Shosh is modestly attired in a long dark dress, set off with a striking blonde wig.

Both couples are clearly walking a tightrope. Yuri doesn't know where to look and both husband and wife react awkwardly to the sight of any bare flesh. In turn, this makes their hosts feel uncomfortable. Debbie and Shosh at least have shared history and are soon looking at old photos. Yuri, on the other hand, judges the hosts' home, especially the spacious kitchen. “All of this just to pour cereal into a bowl?” he asks with mock incredulity.

What follows is an exchange about lifestyle, love and rather more contentious topics. Shosh reveals they have eight children (in a much smaller home), one of whom has ‘married out’ (wed a non-Jew), in response to which Yuri sat shiva (observed the eight-day mourning period for the deceased). They also discuss Israel – the Promised Land – where Yuri met Shosh (“outside Big Apple Pizza on a Saturday night. And that was that”). Both women grew up Orthodox together, but though Debbie is still observant enough to have an 'internal clock' telling her what Jewish holiday it is, she admits that she and Phil wouldn’t move to Israel “because it’s ethnonationalistic” (favours only one race). And, as hinted at by the title, the rather troublesome subject of whether or not they would hide each other, as Anne Frank's Christian neighbour Miep Gies hid her, arises.

There are so many standout moments in this extraordinary tapestry of a play. Shosh’s account of embracing observance is transfixing: she recounts how she revelled in the joy of Purim with the Rebezzin (rabbi’s wife) – who had dressed up for the festival as the colourful Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. And Trevor’s unceremonious pronouncing of a shift in faith to “a new church, Pasta-farianism”, explores the absurdity of organised religion. He declares that his goal is to live in a sustainable world with equal rights, opportunities and freedoms for all, and that the dogma of one religion trumping another is nonsensical. Plus the performances are uniformly excellent and entirely convincing on Anna Fleischle’s equally authentic set.

The unique, fly-on-the-wall perspective provided by What We Talk About… draws you into the complex, passionate and intimate relationship that contemporary Jews have with their faith and culture, and centres that relationship bang in the middle of the current Middle East crisis – with explosive results. This is provocatively thought-provoking drama from one of America’s most exciting writers.

By Judi Herman

Photos by Mark Senior

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank runs until Saturday 23 November. 7.30pm (Mon-Sat), 2.30pm (Thu & Sat only). From £22.25. Marylebone Theatre, NW1 6XT. marylebonetheatre.com

Don’t miss our trip to see What We Talk About… followed by the stars of the show in conversation on Tuesday 29 October. Click here for more info and to book.