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The Jewish Chronicle

Review: Beau Jest

May 16, 2008 13:56

By

John Nathan,

John Nathan

1 min read

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Hackney Empire, London E8

James Sherman’s Jewish rom-com is thankfully a lot funnier than its naff punning title. It is set in a Chicago apartment in the ’80s, where Sarah Goldman (Lara Pulver) hosts dinners, including a Seder, for her overbearing parents Miriam and Abe (Sue Kelvin and Jack Chissick). She has told them, and her psychologist brother Joel (Alexander Giles), that she has ditched Christian Chris (Alex Hardy) for a boyfriend called Dr David Steinberg. Trouble is, David does not exist and Chris is still in her life. So she hires actor Bob (Adam Rayner) from an escort agency to pretend to be her Jewish boyfriend. Trouble is, Bob also turns out to be a gentile.

You do not need to be Jewish to understand how children are pressurised into marrying the boy or girl of their parents’ dreams. But Jews will laugh loudest at the funniest lines.