(seen at the afternoon performance on 19th April 2026)
The monkey can vouch for the absolute authenticity, as this is set in its stamping-ground. The estate on Honeypot Lane is real – and the catering unit is occupied by an Indian catering company. “Hair on Broadway” is now “HOB,” but set designer Tim Shortall’s home interior looks like any you will find in the area.
The through lounge, the faded wallpaper and well-trodden carpet, Judaica and tochkas filling the shelves. Identically posed wedding photograph (from the photographer who did all the 1960s functions), hang on the wall along with pictures of all their children.
David (Nicholas Woodson) and Lesley (Tracy-Ann Oberman) have been married for decades. Three children; one of whom, Danny, has just died flying as a helicopter pilot for the IDF. Daughter Ruth (Dorothea Myer-Bennett) works for the UN, investigating the same Arab / Israeli conflict, and has returned home for his memorial service.
Her younger brother Jonny (Nitai Levi) is disconnected from the family catering industry, brawling and mewling as he finds his way through life’s thicket.
The family business is in sharp decline anyway. It may have provided “The Last Supper” but has probably served its last simcha (celebration event), thanks to rumoured poisoning of a guest (“We don’t serve salmon paste”), plus a boycott by the community over their daughter’s job.
David mini-cabs three nights a week (you could in those days; these days, licencing prevents casual industry), wife Lesley keeps the home and accompanies him to Stoke Newington for the best fish.
Rabbi Simon (Alex Zur) calls to try and snap Jonny out of his lassitude, old family friend Saul Morganstern (Dan Fredenburgh) is invited for dinner to try and revive hope – the landing of his daughter’s wedding breakfast contract.
Into this arrives daughter’s English (“four-fifths Welsh”) ruling classes boss Sir Stephen Crossley (Adrian Lukis), bearing dubiously acquired paperwork relating to her brother’s death.
Written exactly 20 years ago, Ryan Craig’s play is suddenly relevant again as it explores the wider effects of the Gaza Conflict on the British Jewish Community.
Craig sets up a parallel between David and his old friend Saul – “I had your back, back then” as David protected his lifelong friend’s childhood viola. Now, that eminent surgeon friend won’t reciprocate in his time of need, for fear of losing his position as Synagogue Chairman of the community.
The Rabbi warns of two protest groups as the memorial service in the morning, and David worries about protecting his family name. Ruth’s final perceived besmirchment another parallel drawn between the protection of reputation – family / personal, as a faith, as a nation state.
Director Lindsay Posner simply removes the party wall of the Rosenberg home and lets it all play out.
From the moment Nitai Levi slumps with 20-something ennui across the cream sofa, to Woodson shuffling in as his short, perfectly cast father David – blunt wife Lesley bustling behind him, we know. We are there. It’s familiar, it’s heimishe, it’s home.
Daughter Ruth is the catalyst. Dorothea Myer-Bennett using education and position to elevate herself – delighting in herself noticing the minutia of other lives on a plane, investigating the wider world – and from her heights almost callously crashing her grief-ridden emotions into her family’s lives.
Family friend and potential client saviour Saul Morganstern and Ruth’s boss Sir Stephen Crossley make the most of their strongly written and played (sadly disrupted by a shmuck who thought the “turn your phone off” rule didn’t apply to him) keynote argument scene, while Rabbi Simon neatly sets up the opening but vanishes for the rest of the piece.
Therein lies the difficulty with this work. In an immaculate staging, a domestic front room in Edgware feels too small for the ideas to be explored fully. The words are powerful, the concept almost too big for six Jews of the diaspora to convey.
The menu card is attractively printed, the table dressing is fine. The food is neither under-nor-overcooked, and the conversation flows. It is just that we get up from dining with a feeling that something is missing, just like in Danny’s psychiatric report.
Maybe a little more family and a little less political flavouring, or perhaps the other way around? A decently catered function, but not quite a distinguished one.
3 stars.
Photographs provided by Todaytix, used via agency permission, no credit details provided by supplier.