The story in Joshua Harmon's play is straightforward. On the evening of their beloved grandfather's funeral, grandchildren Dayna, Jonah and Liam are forced to bed down in a tiny studio apartment because space is short. Before Liam's arrival - he missed it all by losing his mobile on the ski slopes and failing to call home - Dayna lays claim to their grandfather's chai, a religious medallion he smuggled through the Nazi death camps and wore to the end. What she doesn't anticipate is that Liam's already made plans to place it round the neck of his gentile girlfriend, Melody...
What follows is a ferocious argument. Dayna, so religious she's moving to Israel to join their army and study Rabbinical law, says that morally the chai should be hers. What use is it to the atheist Liam? He is one of the Bad Jews who uphold the rights of other minorities to their belief systems, cultural histories and artefacts while sneering at his own. Except Dayna doesn't put it like that. She makes it personal, skewering him time and again with sharp deconstructions of these contradictions. When he strikes back, the volume and tension in Michael Longhurst's production rise tenfold. There are searing moments of both cruelty and enlightenment. Is either the rightful heir to something so precious?
In conclusion: Bad Jews is funny. It's not funny haha, it's funny ouch. I wept with laughter at one point. Gina Bramhill as the good-hearted Melody, is a delightful counterpoint to Jenna Augen's brilliantly caustic Dayna. Ilan Goodman is an eye-poppingly angry Liam, and Joe Coen as Jonah speaks volumes without needing to say very much at all.
References
Bad Jews, Tickets
Arts Theatre, 6-7 Great Newport Street, London WC2H 7JB. Run ends 30 May
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