Photo by: Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo
Verbal sparring dark comedy, Bad Jews, will leave you speechless
Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon and directed by Rebecca Bradshaw is currently running at the Calderwood Pavilion in the South End. Set in March in a studio on the Upper West Side of NYC, this dark comedy includes four characters but really centers on two equally unlovable and selfish cousins who manipulate conversations and relationships to get their way. Don Aucoin from The Boston Globe sums it up best, “this is a dark comedy that cuts deep and draws blood.”
The key to this storyline is the amazing dialog and the speed at which it is delivered. The 110 minute play unfolds at the speed of light and leaves you gasping at the verbal spars and emotional vulnerability; manufactured or real it doesn’t seem to matter because the tension on the stage is palpable. This is one of those plays that you want to go grab a drink to discuss after you see it.
While this production must have added angst for those raised in the Jewish faith, one needn’t be Jewish to be touched (and horrified). The play is impossible to turn away from and will suck you in from the first moment to the touching final scene between Jonah and Daphna.
Bad Jews runs until Saturday, Nov. 29th – Get Your Tickets Here
BosGuy 
As a Jew I did enjoy the play – it is overreaching at times as Josh exaggerates stereotypes (for what I am not sure – possibly self loathing?)
The themes are not at all exclusively “Jewish” – in society we witness family reactions in a similar (yet not as over played as in this Samuel French rental) when someone in the family dates as “outsider” – here in Boston the old tensions used to be when the Irish catholics married Italian Catholics – same faith (which is not part of this play’s plot) – same disdain.
Hopefully someday we will all just get over ourselves.
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