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Having a shvitz: Working up a nostalgic head of steam

Going to Spurs didn’t cut it for Nick Cassenbaum. But the shvitz was something else. Now he is extolling its virtues in a one man show

August 27, 2015 10:34
Having a shvitz (Photo: Malcolm Glover)

ByRosa Doherty, Rosa Doherty

4 min read

Growing up in Essex, playwright and performer Nick Cassenbaum was fascinated by his grandfather's stories of the East End steam baths, where he and friends carried on the tradition of the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in the 19th century, for whom the baths were a place to meet, steam and eat - in that order.

Searching for a Jewish identity that did not involve "Saturdays at Spurs, summer camp, or Brent Cross", Cassenbaum accompanied his "Papa Alan [Greenberg]" to his weekly sessions at one of London's few surviving steam rooms.

Captivated by the camaraderie, the expletive-riddled banter and age-old techniques of schmeissing - a robust massage for want of a better term - he became a regular.

Now the 26-year-old has turned the experience into a one man show, Bubble Schmeisis, which will, fittingly, open before an east London audience at the Rich Mix in Bethnal Green on September 5.