British-Jewish theatre since the 1950s is one of the jewels in the crown of post-war British culture. Playwrights like Pinter, Stoppard, Wesker and Ronald Harwood have had a huge impact. Together with directors like Peter Brook, Jonathan Miller, Patrick Marber and Sam Mendes they made an enormous contribution to modern British drama. And then there are the actors: Henry Goodman, Anton Lesser, Antony Sher, Janet Suzman and many more.
They have addressed issues about antisemitism, Nazism and the Holocaust and, to a lesser extent, the Israel-Palestine question. Think of plays like Kindertransport by Diane Samuels, Pinter’s Ashes to Ashes and, most recently, Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt. But their greatest achievements have been plays about Jewish families, such as Wesker’s 1950s trilogy about the Kahns; unforgettable Jewish characters like Pinter’s Goldberg in The Birthday Party; stories of immigration; Oswald Mosley and the Battle of Cable Street. Perhaps even more interesting are the great non-Jewish characters they have created, such as the old Shakespearean actor in Ronald Harwood’s The Dresser; Mozart and Salieri in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus; Pinter’s tramp in The Caretaker, or the hit men in his play, The Dumb Waiter.
This is why A Companion to British-Jewish Theatre Since the 1950s is so overdue. It is the first book to take on this fascinating subject. The editors have brought together some interesting writers about Jewish literature and culture, including Peter Lawson (on Wesker and on Pinter’s Jewishness); Alex Stähler on plays about antisemitism; Sue Vice (on Jack Rosenthal); and Nathan Abrams on Jews and British TV drama. There are also interviews with key figures including Nicholas Hytner, Julia Pascal and Patrick Marber.
What’s not to like? Well, first, there are so many typos and errors. Look Back in Anger was not written in 1978; names like George Steiner, Sophie Okonedo and John Russell Taylor are mis-spelt; The Merchant was not “the beginning of Wesker’s direct dramatic engagement with Jewishness”; Michelene Wandor was not “the first woman to have a play performed on one of the main stages of the National Theatre”, and so on.
But it’s the absences that are more concerning. There’s a section on TV drama but no mention of Frederic Raphael; virtually nothing on Jonathan Miller, David Aukin, Ronald Harwood or Antony Sher; no mention at all of Anton Lesser, Sam Spiro, Sydney Tafler, Tom Kempinski or Michael Kustow (among many others). There is too much on Israel, feminism and the Holocaust and far too little on what the great post-war Jewish dramatists actually wrote about. Too little on the golden age of the 1950s and ’60s and too much on minor contemporary figures like Ryan David, Stephen Laughton and Shelley Silas.
This hugely disappointing book is a missed opportunity.
David Herman is a senior JC reviewer
