An Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017 round-up in reviews

Some fantastic shows are visiting the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year, plenty of which have a Jewish cultural interest. There are even a few that our Arts Editor Judi Herman has already reviewed from previous runs and spoken to creatives behind the productions in some cases, so we thought it'd be great to revisit those. Below you'll find the listings info for Knock Knock, The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, and Kafka and Son, as well as links to the theatre reviews and JR OutLoud podcasts.

Wednesday 2 – Sunday 13 & Tuesday 15 – Monday 28 August Knock Knock In his own physical solo show, Israeli actor Niv Petel uses his body and voice to explore the effects of National Service on a single mother and her only son in Israel. Knock Knock is inspired by real events in a country where children are destined to be soldiers from the day they are born; their parents, who were all soldiers once themselves, know that one day a knock on the front door might change their lives forever. 7.30pm. £8.50-9.50, £7.50-8.50 concs. C Primo, Edinburgh, EH2 3JP. www.edfringe.com

Listen to Niv Petel on JR OutLoud:

http://www.jewishrenaissance.org.uk/blog/jr-outloud-niv-petel/

And read our review of Knock Knock below:

http://www.jewishrenaissance.org.uk/blog/review-knock-knock/

Tuesday 15 – Sunday 20 & Tuesday 22 – Sunday 27 August The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk Daniel Jamieson’s The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk follows the story of a young couple, Marc and Bella Chagall, as they navigate the Pogroms, the Russian Revolution, and each other. Times vary. £21.50, £16.50 concs, £9.50 unemployed. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, EH1 2ED. www.edfringe.com

Click here to read about the making of The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, an article that featured in the April 2016 issue of Jewish Renaissance and read our review below:

http://www.jewishrenaissance.org.uk/blog/review-the-flying-lovers-of-vitebsk/

Tuesday 8 – Monday 14 & Thursday 17 – Sunday 27 August Kafka and Son An award-winning, five-star, sell-out hit show on four continents from Canadian writer, director and performer Alon Nashman. At age 36, Franz Kafka wrote a monumental letter to his overbearing father that would change the course of his life and fiction forever. A blistering, often hilarious dissection of domestic authority, Kafka and Son is a revelatory visit with one of the architects of the modern psyche. 11.40am. £10-£11, £9-£10 concs. Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ. www.edfringe.com

Listen to Alon Nashman on JR Outloud:

Click here to find out what else is going on at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Two consecutive evenings, two talented young Israeli performing artists, both with so much to offer

knock-and-falling

I rounded off October by spending two consecutive evenings being excited and challenged by the work of two talented young Israeli performing artists, both with so much to offer. Niv Petel is heartbreaking in Knock Knock, his beautifully nuanced account of a devastating situation faced by too many Israeli families, and Hagit Yakira attracted full houses for her exciting new work Free Falling.

Petel is an extraordinary physical actor, wonderfully convincing as a devoted mother whose son is the centre of her life. An engaging and important contribution to our understanding of life in Israel. And at Sadler’s Wells last week, dancer/choreographer Yakira presented four talented performers falling and recovering again as they take what life throws at them. Supporting each other, their eyes and faces as important as the rest of their bodies as they look out for each other. In a beguiling add on, three more dance artists responded to Free Falling – including full audience participation on the studio floor, everyone linked in a joyful dance – a sort of Hora at Sadler’s Wells, which makes Israeli dance so welcome. Niv Petel and Hagit Yakira are certainly names to watch.

Continue through the blog to read our reviews of Knock Knock and Free Falling, as well as an interview with Niv Petel, or click the names to go straight to each one.

by Judi Herman

Review: Knock Knock ★★★★ - A beautifully nuanced account of a devastating situation

Clad simply in a white top and khaki trousers, to which he adds such details as a white apron, Petel bowls a blinder by playing the mother of his young conscript. He stacks the emotional stakes high – she's a single mother and an army therapist, trained to tell bereaved parents the worst, to make that dreaded knock on the door, and to work with them through the grief and loss that will form part of the rest of their lives. For most of the show Petel talks intimately and affectionately to his son. The account of their intense relationship is beautifully paced, starting with Ilad as a babe in arms and then as a toddler; at kindergarten, then junior school; as stroppy teenager and, inevitably, at 18 preparing for the draft.

Petel’s is a beautifully nuanced physical performance that takes the audience with him through the whole of what we know is to be a tragically short life. There's a moment of hope when we discover that as an only child, he can opt out of active service; we live with his mother through the nail-biting agony of trying to dissuade her son from choosing service to prove himself. But mothers must let go if children are to grow up at all.

With the aid of designer Rhiannon White the show is made up of an extraordinarily simple set and minimal, versatile props to set off the physical and vocal skill and simplicity with which Petel tells his story. White lives up to her name, for everything on stage is stark and clinical: a table, chair, telephone and the towel that Petel winds first into baby Ilad and then almost everything else needed to tell his tale. Under lighting designer Oliver Bush’s equally stark white light, the feel is of a waiting room, a surgery or a morgue – perhaps a waiting room in the afterlife even. The only other colour is the khaki of those trousers, suggesting that Petel is Ilad, as well as his mother, which is a touching duality. Overall, Knock Knock is an engaging and important contribution to our understanding of life in Israel.

By Judi Herman

Knock Knock runs until Sunday 6 November, 7.30pm, £8-£10, at Etcetera Theatre, 265 Camden High St, NW1 7BU; 020 7482 4857. http://etceteratheatre.com

Listen to Niv Petel talking about Knock Knock on JR OutLoud