The Royal Court theatre is set to stage a production entitled "Jews. In Their Own Words" based on the accounts and experiences of leading members of the Jewish community.
The show, written by author and JC columnist Jonathan Freedland, is described as a "theatrical inquiry into an ancient prejudice" and is based on accounts from interviewees including former Labour MP Luciana Berger, current Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, author Howard Jacobson, actress and activist Tracy-Ann Oberman, the Community Security Trust's Dave Rich, and many more.
The Royal Court describes it as a "searing and incisive play looking at the roots and damning legacy of antisemitism in Britain – especially in those places where you’d least expect it."
Proud to have instigated this. https://t.co/dIGPpfmzGp
— Tracy-Ann Oberman (@TracyAnnO) June 13, 2022
It will run from Monday, September 19 until Saturday, October 22, and it will explore antisemitism through words, songs, "and a dose of English irony".
The online booking page opens with the line: "Jews have been talked about a lot in recent years.
"Now they get to speak for themselves."
This announcement comes after the Sloane Square theatre came under heavy fire last November after a exploitative Silicon Valley billionaire in the play Rare Earth Mettle was named Hershel Fink, despite not actually being Jewish in the script.
The Royal Court issued an apology after widespread outrage at the stereotyping of Jewish people. The theatre accepted that there had been "unconscious bias".
Tracy-Ann Oberman reportedly met with her friend Vicky Featherstone, the theatre's artistic director, to discuss the fallout at the time, and this new play was an idea of hers.
Speaking to the JC in March, Featherstone said: “The big learning for me has been about how few Jewish artists have felt that they can be out about their Jewishness with their work at the Royal Court, and in other areas of culture.
“That was an absolute shock and something which feel a huge sense of responsibility to be able to make a shift about and do something about.”
In an interview this week with The Guardian, Featherstone said that the play aims to reach a “complex, detailed understanding of where antisemitism sits in our culture, in a way that we choose not to see if we’re not Jewish".
She said of the Rare Earth Mettle fiasco: "I think there are genuine, very public and bad mistakes that you make like the naming of the character in Rare Earth Mettle. I think it’s important we acknowledge those and understand where they came from, what that means, and the work we need to do to ensure we have learned from it, so it doesn’t happen again."
