Why I brought heimishe humour to the London stage

I had a very specific remit for Joyfully Jewish, a trilogy of plays written by Jewish playwrights, directed by Jewish directors and performed by Jewish actors: to remind people what they love about Jews and about being Jewish.

The idea came to me  on the train journey up to Inverness from this year’s London from Fringe: I wanted to do something to combat the antisemitism that has grown around the arts this past year.  

The remit for the plays, performed this month on three separate Sunday nights, was to remind people what they love about Jews and being Jewish: culture, family, food.  was therefore very specific: no war, no antisemitism, no trauma. And our three brilliant playwrights – Estee Stimler, Gary Ogin and newcomer Elijah Lifton – certainly delivered.

From a first date to a daughter revealing a secret about a will, the works centre on family dynamics and lifecycles.  But, I hear you ask, how can you celebrate being Jewish without focusing on the traumas of the past and present? Aren’t they just part of being Jewish? 

The hour-long, inaugural production takes the form of three new, short plays, being performed on three Sunday nights in November. The idea is to remind people about what they love about Jews: culture, family, relationships, food – the joys of being Jewish – and take this joy to a wider audience, whilst creating a safe space for Jewish creatives. And while November’s performances are playing within the safety of the Tsitsit Jewish Fringe Festival, the hope is to tour the production to Fringe festivals around the country next year – to towns with few or no Jews living there at all.

So, what makes this night of new Jewish writing different from all other nights of new, Jewish writing? Well, since you ask… Firstly, .

Secondly, the safe space for Jewish creatives wasn’t only about there being a real need for that after a year of being cancelled and shunned by the wider creative industry (many of us Jewish actors have even left the one organisation that should have been looking out for us – Equity). But the saying ‘two Jews, three opinions’ is alive and well and residing within the Jewish artistic community like never before. I wanted to make sure our Jewish creatives felt safe with each other and started the first rehearsal with a short spiel about keeping politics out of the rehearsal room, having heard tell of a Jewish group that had thrown someone out because their politics didn’t align with the producer’s. If Jews can’t feel safe with other Jews, where can they feel safe?

Anyway, back to the plays.’

These thoughts and contradictions were succinctly summed up by another creative, Daniel Cainer. After watching him collaborate with Howard Jacobson in a wonderful evening of music and conversation at JW3 a couple of months ago, I plucked up the courage to ask him to write a song for Joyfully Jewish. Not only did he compose a beautiful, soulful, very Jewish tune, his lyrics got to the heart of why I wanted to put Joyfully Jewish together, so I’ll leave the last words to him:

“Joyfully Jewish Like Tevye in Fiddler Put your arms in the air Drown your despair In the mikveh There’s trouble at the mill But for a moment let’s be still And breathe and feel and be Joyfully Jewish… shall we?”

Joyfully Jewish is presented by Echoes Theatre Company, which is a registered charity, and has been generously supported by the Pauline and Harold Berman Charitable Trust and Tsitsit Jewish Fringe Festival. To book tickets, find out more information and support our work, please visit www.joyfullyjewish.co.uk