Jews. In Their Own Words is a triumphant riff on antisemitism - The Jewish Chronicle

I’ll be honest. My experience of plays based on interview transcripts (including a truly dire evening at the National watching one assembled by David Hare about trains, which was even worse than his normal plays) did not give me confidence that Jonathan Freedland’s Jews. In Their Own Words would be an evening to remember - in a good way.

Which only goes to show that it’s not the method that matters but the person putting the interviews together. Because the evening is a triumph.

Not in that showbizzy ‘darling, you were great’ sense (although it was that, too). Rather, that Freedland – whose play is based on an idea by the indefatigable campaigner against antisemitism, Tracy-Ann Oberman – has managed something almost impossible.

Jews. In Their Own Words provides a concise, thoughtful, damn-near comprehensive guide to the key themes underlying antisemitism – money, the blood libel, power, Israel and so on – in a riveting, inventive and creative way. And as such, it’s the perfect mechanism for explaining antisemitism to those who need it explained to them.

But it’s also magnetic and powerful even for those of us who have experienced antisemitism, who fear it – and who have lived and breathed the subject in recent years. To be blunt: having edited the JC during the years when antisemitism became a thing again – especially during the Corbyn years – I thought there wasn’t much new under the sun I could be told about the past few years. I have – literally – forgotten more stories that I had to deal with from the past few years than is healthy for anyone, such was the way it dominated my attention.

And yet Jews. In Their Own Words not only refocused my thoughts but refined my memories. The cast of a dozen interviewees varies from well known names like Howard Jacobson, Margaret Hodge, Stephen Bush and Luciana Berger to decorator Philip Abrahams and social worker Victoria Hart. For the latter, the real story is how they encountered casual antisemitism in their day to day lives. But I was especially struck – in a way that surprised me, given now familiar I was with almost every aspect of their stories – by the testimony of Margaret Hodge and Luciana Berger.

I think that may be because, counter intuitively, it is all the more powerful having actors (outstanding, every one) portray them rather than listening to the people themselves. It’s as if we are getting an intensified version of the real person. Louisa Clein was mesmerising as Luciana Berger – and devastating as she told of the horror of her final ever CLP meeting in Liverpool on her way to the maternity hospital.

And I will long remember Debbie Chazen as Margaret Hodge nonchalantly reading out some of the abusive tweets and messages she received, and her casual enunciation of the c word (met with an audible gasp from the audience). The misogyny is familiar to anyone who has ever followed the story, but seemed even more shocking in the sparse context of the play.

It’s a tight evening – an hour and forty minutes straight through but there’s not a wasted minute. Some of it – including a song and dance number, It Was The Jews That Did It – was remiscent of Mel Brooks (that’s a compliment).

Early reviews have missed the point entirely, arguing that it won’t be seen by the people who need to see it.

For one thing, who says Jews don’t need to see it? I found it cathartic and strangely uplifting – seeing real Jews being portrayed as real Jews and not as JEWS.

But more tellingly, who is to say that the right people won’t see it? This isn’t a play for Jew haters, designed somehow to persuade them they’re wrong. It’s for those who don’t really know about antisemitism, but who want to understand.

That, surely, is the next move. Jews. In Their Own Words is uncomplicated and would lend itself to touring. It’s on at the Royal Court for most of October. Do go - you won't regret it. But, in a way, I am more interested in where it’s on next.

Topics:

Antisemitism