In conversation: Nina Menkes

“Hebrew is a big part of my life. I’m not a religious Jew, but spiritual questions are central to my work and life”

Jewish American filmmaker Nina Menkes has been a pioneer of independent cinema since the 1980s, challenging conventions through her unwavering and unique vision. The BFI Southbank is currently running a retrospective of her work, in light of which Menkes sits down to chat with critic and lecturer Dr Julia Wagner. Menkes discusses her latest documentary, Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power; the significance of being a child of parents who fled the Holocaust; and the visual and aural style of her films.

Cinematic Sorceress: The Films of Nina Menkes runs until Wednesday 31 May. Times and prices vary. BFI Southbank, SE1 8XT. whatson.bfi.org.uk

In conversation: Alexandra Damiani

"On tour we had the audience singing along – at a dance show – with ‘Hallelujah' and ‘Marianne'… My heart just melted"

If you love Leonard Cohen and dance, here's an irresistible offering. Dance Me: Music by Leonard Cohen – presented by Ballets Jazz Montréal (based, as the name suggests, in Cohen’s home city) – sets the bard's rich and profound work to movement, video and more. The company has already toured the world and now it’s London’s turn to thrill to their glorious and moving interpretation, which was actually approved by the man himself when it was first conceived by then artistic director Louis Robitaille. In a revealing chat with Cohen devotee Judi Herman, Alexandra Damiani, current artistic director of BJM, spoke about the show, the ideas behind it and Damiani’s own career.

Dance Me: Music by Leonard Cohen runs Tuesday 7 – Saturday 11 & Tuesday 14 February. 7.30pm, 2.30pm (Thu & Sat only), £33.75-£84.38. Sadler’s Wells, EC1R 4TN. sadlerswells.com

Read our five-star review of Dance Me on the JR blog.

In conversation: Ben Brown

“It was extraordinary that Himmler seemed to want to defend himself to a Jew, as if he was going to make Masur understand or sympathise”

The year is 1945 and playrwight Ben Brown takes us to the estate near Berlin, where Heinrich Himmler, architect of the Holocaust, meets in secret with a Swedish Jew and member of the World Jewish Congress, Norbert Masur. The meeting is at the instigation of the estate’s owmer, Himmler’s Finnish physiotherapist Dr Felix Kersten, who has persuaded Hitler’s deputy to come without the Führer’s knowledge, to bargain for his life as it becomes clear that Germany is losing the war. The stakes are high, the freeing of thousands of Jews from camps is the bargaining chip, and the 'night' whose end is in sight in Brown’s tense, eye-opening drama is World War II and the Holocaust. Listen as Judi Herman speaks to Brown about his vital source material – both Kersten’s memoirs and Masur’s account written immediately on his return to Stockholm – and his fascination with vividly reimagining vital moments in 20th-century history.

The End of the Night runs until Saturday 28 May. 7.30pm, 3pm (Thu & Sat only). £18.50-£32.50, £16.50-£23.50 concs. Park Theatre, N4 3JP. parktheatre.co.uk. An online screening of the production will be presented by award-winning Original Theatre, keep an eye on our listings pages for dates, which will be announced soon.

Read our review of The End of the Night on the JR blog.

In conversation: Josephine Burton

"We are working in a very cross-linguistic way, performing in Ukrainian and Russian, Yiddish and Hebrew, English and Roma!"

© Anna Pavliuk

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the massacre of more than 33,000 Jews by Nazi occupying forces in the ravine of Babyn Yar in the suburbs of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. The figures rose to more than 100,000 over the following two years of Nazi occupation. Songs for Babyn Yar marks this anniversary with a performance featuring three Ukrainian musicians – Yuriy Gurzhy, Svetlana Kundish and Mariana Sadovska – who have composed and arranged the music. Drawing on diverse voices, including survivors’ testimonies, traditional Yiddish and Ukrainian folk songs and poetry, they journey deep into 100 years of their country’s history to reveal forgotten stories and silenced songs. It is a new act of remembrance that also asks how to move forward from a tragedy that has never been fully commemorated. After a performance at JW3 on Sunday 21 November, it will tour to Ukraine and there are plans for further UK performances. Songs for Babyn Yar is directed by Josephine Burton, artistic director of Dash Arts, who spoke to JR’s arts editor Judi Herman about the story of the production and how it tells a powerful story.

Songs for Babyn Yar runs Sunday 21 November. 7.30pm. £15 (in-person), £5 (online only). JW3, NW3 6ET. 020 7433 8988. jw3.org.uk

In conversation: Peter Tate

“It is modern. There are mobile phones in it. When Shylock speaks to Tubal, it’s a phone call"

© Guy Bell

Many of us have seen The Merchant of Venice, perhaps Shakespeare’s most controversial play, featuring Shylock, the reviled Jewish moneylender. But now, theatre director Bill Alexander, who has directed the play several times to much acclaim, has created this “all-new modern-day adaptation”, set in what he calls the "blackly comic world of modern Venice", tellingly entitled A Merchant of Venice – did you spot the indefinite article?

In Alexander’s version which, he says, "focuses on just six key characters, their entangled loves, desires and fortunes", Peter Tate plays Shylock. He is also co-artistic director (with Anthony Biggs) of The Playground Theatre in west London. He spoke to JR’s arts editor Judi Herman about the loves, desires and fortunes of Shylock, and the joys and challenges of running one of London’s newest theatres, which is currently welcoming Shakespeare In Italy, the company behind the production, with its brief to take the works of Shakespeare to new audiences in exciting and interesting ways.

A Merchant of Venice runs until Saturday 4 December. 7.30pm, 2.30pm (Thu & Sat only). From £13.50. The Playground Theatre, W10 6RQ. theplaygroundtheatre.london

Read our review of A Merchant of Venice on the JR blog.

Little Amal is welcomed to London

“It was heart-stopping! It’s hard to remember she’s a puppet, she is so real and lifelike"

© David Levene

© David Levene

© David Levene

© David Levene

© David Levene

© David Levene

© David Levene

Since she set off in July, JR has been following the extraordinary journey across Europe of Little Amal, the giant puppet of a nine-year-old refugee girl. She is searching for her mother and, on the way, highlighting the plight of her fellow refugees. JR’s Judi Herman spoke to the theatremaker behind the project, David Lan in the Summer 2021 issue of JR, and has been looking forward to Little Amal’s arrival in the UK ever since. Last weekend she joined the crowds thronging the steps of St Paul’s, along with leaders of different faith communities, to welcome Little Amal to the capital, listen to the band and speak to members of the crowd, including Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, Sheikh Ibrahim Moghra and Rev Lucy Winkett of St James’s Church, Piccadilly.

Later, Herman caught up with Lan, who joined her via Zoom from Oxford, where Little Amal was due next, to meet a girl who equalled her in size – a huge puppet of Lewis Carroll’s Alice – there to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Alice Through the Looking Glass. But first join us on the steps of St Paul’s…

The Walk with Amal runs until Wednesday 3 November. Times, prices and venues vary. walkwithamal.org

Read our interview with David Lan in the Summer 2021 issue of JR and read more about The Walk with Amal on the JR blog.

In conversation: Rebecca Taichman

“It was like two Trekkies finding each other. Paula was equally obsessed with God of Vengeance”

Rebecca Taichman won the Tony Award for best director for her production of Paula Vogel’s hit play Indecent, charting the controversy surrounding Yiddish playwright Sholem Asch’s 1906 drama God of Vengeance, a story of exploitation set in a brothel that also celebrates the passionate love between two women. It caused a furore when the English translation opened on Broadway in 1923 and the company were tried for obscenity. Happily, Indecent became one of the hottest tickets in theatre and Rebecca has been in London directing the UK premiere, now selling out at the Menier Chocolate Factory, where it opened to rave reviews. Before she returned to New York, Taichman spoke to JR’s Judi Herman about her fruitful, five-year collaboration with Vogel and their shared passion for telling “the true story of a little Jewish play”.

Indecent runs until Saturday 27 November. 8pm (Tue-Sat), 3.30pm (Sat & Sun only). £37.50-£47.50. Menier Chocolate Factory, SE1 1RU. menierchocolatefactory.com

Read our five-star review of Indecent on the JR blog.

In conversation: Alastair Falk

“It's a culmination of threads, if you’ll pardon the pun, through my life, which sitting around in Covid allowed me to pull together”

Tsitsit: The Jewish Fringe Festival, aptly named after the Jewish ritual fringes, launches this October throughout the UK and online. It promises a packed month of music, theatre, comedy and family entertainment celebrating “the diversity of Jewishness” and is the brainchild of Alastair Falk, a former head teacher and co-founder of Limmud. Judi Herman caught up with him to find out about this new festival that’s really got her excited; and Alastair tells her how he himself got the festival bug starting out with his own comedy show on the Edinburgh Fringe.

Tsitsit: The Jewish Fringe Festival runs Sunday 3 – Sunday 31 October. Times and prices vary. See it online and at various UK venues. tsitsitfringe.org

In conversation: Josh Azouz

“I’m Sephardi-Jewish and it was interesting to find out about a WWII story seen through the eyes of a Jewish couple and a Muslim couple”

© Marc Brenner

Josh Azouz is a playwright whose work deservedly draws in audiences. His last play, The Mikvah Project, set in the Jewish ritual bath of the title, intrigued audiences last year (pre-pandemic). Now his Sephardi background and his interest in Jewish/Muslim relations are among the inspirations that sent him on a revealing journey of discovery for his latest play, Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied Tunisia. Azouz speaks to JR’s arts editor Judi Herman about this new play and more, from his years singing in the choir at Lauderdale Road Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, to how time spent training at Philippe Gaulier Clown School in Paris proved useful for this dark tragicomedy.

Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied Tunisia runs until Saturday 18 September. 7.30pm, 2.30pm (Sat & Wed only). £10-£43.50. Almeida Theatre, N1 1TA. 020 7359 4404. almeida.co.uk

Read our review of the show on the JR blog.

In conversation: Victor Esses

"I grew up in a very Jewish religious Sephardi community in Brazil – our history is so embedded in migration, it exemplifies the Jewish identity"

What makes a home for you? Victor Esses answers this very personal question in Where to Belong, a one-man multimedia show that shares his exploration of his own rich identity as Jewish-Lebanese, Brazilian, gay and, as a result of the Lebanese crisis of 1975, a second-generation refugee. As the show takes on a poignant topicality in the current refugee crisis, Esses speaks to JR’s arts editor Judi Herman about how he discovered more about himself and his heritage to make this poignant show, which includes storytelling, music, photographs and – thanks to video – a moving appearance by his mother.

Where to Belong tours Friday 3 September – Thursday 14 October, stopping in London (3 Sep); Oxford (7 Sep); Harlow (9 Sep); Bedford (18 Sep); Cardiff (23 Sep); and Manchester (14 Oct). For times and prices see JR listings or visit victoresses.com/wheretobelongtour.