“Bad Jews’ is good news for summer theater lovers

BY TERRY SCHMIDA

We live in trying times for religious true believers.

Zealots sully their faith with organized and disorganized violence, while “atheist/agnostic” has become the fastest growing affiliation in the most religious country in the developed world.

These tensions, between the pious and the secular lie at the heart of playwright Joshua Harmon‘s “Bad Jews,” running through July 10 at the Red Barn Theatre, 319 Duval St., rear.

A death in the family of a clan of Manhattan Jews brings together four people with very different ideas about what it means to be Jewish – and American – in the 21st Century.

In one corner is Liam Haber, (Kaleb Smith-Wood,) the grandson of the deceased, who could care less about his Jewish heritage. In the other, we have Liam’s cousin Daphna Feygenbaum (Lisa Elena Monda,) a “super Jew” who plans to begin rabbinical studies in Israel, when she moves there to be with her IDF soldier boyfriend.

During a night spent in Liam’s small studio apartment, (with stunning views of the Hudson from the bathroom,) these two ideological opposites castigate each other for everything from their choice of mates, to the value of maintaining a strong Jewish identity, three generations on from Auschwitz.

Caught in the middle of this holy war are Liam’s bubbly shiksa girlfriend Melody (Jessica Jackson,) and Liam’s brother Jonah (Jeremy P. Hyatt,) whose easygoing manner hides a secret he has hidden (quite literally) up his sleeve.

While Daphna heaps scorn upon Liam for being incommunicado on a ski trip in Aspen during his grandfather’s death and subsequent burial, the real source of her fury is the fate of “Poppy’s” chai (Hebrew for “living”) pendant, which both covet for very different reasons.

For Daphna, the pendant, which Poppy managed to hang on to during his internment in the camps, symbolizes the determination to stubbornly preserve a Jewish identity against all odds.

Liam, aware that his grandfather presented the piece to his fiancée, in lieu of an engagement ring, plans to try to work the same romantic magic with Melody.

Possession being nine-tenths of the law, Liam clearly has the stronger case for ownership of the chai. And though Daphna considers Melody to be a bubble-head, Liam’s beloved nonetheless manages to figure the scheme out first – much to her delight.

How this intractable conflict resolves itself is a mystery revealed near the end of the production, when the dust settles on the chai tug-of-war, and Jonah teaches Dapha a lesson in how to truly honor their Poppy’s memory.

“Bad Jews” is directed by Annie Miners and produced by Bob Bowersox, as part of the Theatre XP’s Summer Stage Theatre, which continues with the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Water By the Spoonful,” opening July 20.

“Bad Jews” will be performed at 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Tickets cost $30, with a special $25 price for Sundays.

To purchase tickets, or for more information, call 302-540-6102, or visit keywestsummerstage.com

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