From Marx to Dylan, a year of Jewish drama
stereotypical Jewish mother. Yetta (played by Sara Kestelman) has more in common with Al Capone than anyone’s Yiddishe Mama. She’s a character whose sheer charisma will attract generations of actors to come.
But perhaps the most powerful Jewish story told this year was, almost inevitably, written by Arthur Miller. His little revived Incident at Vichy was given an unbearably taut production by director Phil Willmott at the Finborough. It’s a short, sharp, deeply shocking play, set in a Vichy police station where Jews wait for their fate after being rounded up.
The 1990s Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Norway were the inspiration for JT Rogers’s fantastically ambitious drama Oslo about the most recent and yet ultimately ill fated hope for peace. The achievements of this National Theatre production are many and multi-layered. But conspicuous among them is that, whereas most attempts to dramatise the Middle East conflict are simplistic (often with somewhat demonising depictions of Israel), this one is thrillingly complex. The West End transfer ends at the Harold Pinter Theatre tomorrow.
For sheer acting prowess you can’t beat the performances given by Nathan Lane as the ruthlessly homophobic and gay Republican Roy Cohn and Andrew Garfield as a gay man infected with Aids. Tony Kushner’s epic Angels in America (1991) is set in Reagan’s America. Almost every political line could have been about Trump.
The National was also responsible this year for an astonishingly good revival of Stephen Sondheim’s memory musical Follies. Astonishing, not just because the production seamlessly intersects the stories of former showgirls, and not only because it boasts stand-out performances from Imelda Staunton and Janie Dee among others, but because this was director Dominic Cooke’s first musical. You’d think it was his fiftieth.
The year’s other notable musical theatre first-timer was a certain Bob Dylan whose back catalogue forms the sound-track to Girl from the North Country, Conor McPherson’s play about surviving the Depression — or dying from it. For those who love Dylan it’s unmissable. For those who can’t bear his voice this is the perfect intro to the reluctant Nobel Laureate’s music.
John Nathan is the JC’s theatre critic