The Wanderers
Anna Zeigler
Directed by Igor Golyak
Marylebone Theatre
Novel Productions and Grapevine Shoot Productions
Star rating: 3.5
It’s a refreshing change to see a thoughtful, grown-up, dialogue-driven new play as opposed to a two-a-penny anguished/banal musical. Actually The Wanderers is not technically new. It was written in 2016 and has played in various US venues but this is the UK premiere.
Zeigler, who originally conceived this as two plays, presents two Jewish marriages. Abe (Alex Forsyth) and Sophie (Paksie Vernon) are a modern, educated New York couple, both novelists but he is dealing with inner demons. Schmuli (Eddie Toll) and Esther (Katerina Tannenbaum) are a 1970s traditional Hassidic couple and the scene in which they are first alone together is stunningly well written in its gentle awkwardness. For a long time it seems like two separate stories. The link – yes, there is one – is slow to become apparent.
Also in the mix – and this is less convincing – is Anna Popplewell’s Julia, a movie star with a strong online presence. Abe becomes infatuated with her image and strikes up an increasingly flirtatious correspondence with her. Or thinks he does. The truth turns out to be quite fun as well as posing some pretty powerful questions about the nature of long-term marriage. Jewish culture and values prevail – even when you’re modern, sophisticated and not particularly religious. It’s an underpinning that you’re born with. Not easy, as mixed race Sophie quips, when you have both the Holocaust and slavery in your heritage.
The play features some strong acting especially from Alex Forsyth, headphoned, troubled, passionate, worried and often distanced. And Tannenbaum makes a fine job of developing Esther from a timid new bride to an assertive mother of three with a mind of her own.
The scenes melt seamlessly into each other using a table which doubles as a bed (beneath which Forsyth sometimes hides) and a versatile long bolt of white muslin. Otherwise Jan Pappebaum’s set mostly comprises some shiny chairs, a hat stand and few other bits. The back screen is a mirror which reflects the audience as we find our seats and, I suppose, makes a statement about parallels between the play’s two marriages. Less effective is the glass screen upon which characters write and draw props (such as a radio), symbols and rather tiresome chapter headings which presumably relate to the book Abe is writing but it’s not developed as an idea.
Characters in this play really are wanderers in the desert just as their ancestors were. It’s the nature of the desert which has changed.
