Cinderella And The Matzo Ball - Review

JW3, London

***

Written by Nick Cassenbaum

Directed by Abigail Anderson

Talia Pick and Debbie Chazen

Cinderella and the Matzo Ball marks the JW3rd pantomime from Nick Cassenbaum at London’s eponymous community centre.

Talia Pick plays the titular heroine in a fantastic performance. Talya Soames as Buttons is equally strong. 

Yet again however, Cassenbaum and his director Abigail Anderson choose not to cast a man (or men) in drag for some of this classic fairytale’s famously monstrous roles. There’s scope for hideousness (which both adults and children adore) in Cinderella’s famously ugly sisters and while the competent Libby Liburd and Rosie Yadid dutifully fulfil their sisterly responsibilities with strong turns, the show would have been so much funnier if they’d been replaced by men in frocks. At long last however Debbie Chazen is perfectly (and appropriately) cast in a JW3 panto as the story’s Fairy Godmother.

It is also hard to fathom why Cassenbaum has upended the traditional narrative by making the usually anodyne (but charming) Prince Charming, in this iteration, a money-grabbing villain. There’s enough antisemitic tropery in the world as it is, without such a troublingly unhelpful blunder.

For the most part Cassenbaum's gags are weak. The one truly sparkling gem of humour is his take on Wicked’s Popular, reworked here into Secular. Josh Middleton’s musical adaptations are excellent, with Yael Lowenstein’s choreography similarly an impressive treat in the tight confines of the JW3 space.

Children will love the show with its strong acting and visuals - Cinderella's transition into her ballgown is a delight - and parents will enjoy their kids' laughter. But this show could have been so much more.

Runs until 4th January 2026

Photo credit: Charlie Flint

Witness - Review

JW3, London

****

Co-curated by Mina Kupfermann and Manick Govinda

Benzi Brofman's portrait of the Bibas Family

Mounted at JW3 in London, Witness showcases the work of three Jewish artists, exploring their experience of antisemitism. To view the work on display is humbling, a truly bittersweet display of visual art across a range of media.

Co-curator Mina Kupfermann brings a tragically ethereal style to her imagery that is at best unnaturalistic. Her work suggests a fragile beauty, particularly of those poor souls who were murdered at the Nova Festival in Israel on October 7th 2023. Kupfermann’s work demands our engagement to decipher her message – indeed, the evening’s titular piece Witness is a towering montage of antisemitic bile, so massive that binoculars are on offer to study the work’s loftier inclusions - and when one’s grief is already strong, viewing her creations is, at times, challenging.

Maya Amrami offers a fusion of textiles and AI-driven technology in her work, drawn from her experience as an Israeli Londoner, and the antisemitic contempt and abuse that was hurled at her in the aftermath of October 7th. Hers is a powerful message, delivered in a most disconcerting style, that works as a transference of the pain that she has suffered, into the mind of the person viewing her work.

The exhibitions’s most powerful display however is the work of Benzi Brofman, an Israeli street artist. By a stroke of luck Brofman was spared the horrors of the massacre at the Nova Festival, having needed to have left the Gaza envelope shortly before October 7th. Channelling the energy of his survival, Brofman has made it his mission to create portraits of those murdered and taken hostage on that terrible day. With a tragically beautiful and breathtaking mastery of the airbrush, Brofman’s portraits demand that we look that day’s victims in the eye. His attention to detail is acute and when one, for example, stares at his portrait of the Bibas family, the effect is profoundly moving. It should be recorded that Brofman's original works are now mostly in the possession of the respective subjects' families. On display at JW3 are immaculately created prints of his work that touch our very souls.

While the artwork on display ranges from impressive to outstanding, there is a cloud overshadowing the exhibition. The event was commissioned by the London Centre For The Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (LCSCA) and it was a recent decision by the LCSCA to withdraw from the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism convened by the Israeli Diaspora Ministry that is a deep disappointment. Professor David Hirsh, the LCSCA CEO, in objecting to the presence of a number of invitees to the Israeli event stated: “We must embrace democratic politics that is open to all, and not one that, like antisemitism itself, consigns people arbitrarily and irretrievably to the enemy camp.

I respect the legitimacy of the Israeli Government, but as a scholar my job is to speak clearly when I judge that the wrong path is being considered. I hope that Global Forums in the future will return to the practice of bringing together diverse viewpoints and approaches in serious, evidence-based and rational debate.”

In refusing to engage with those with whom he disagrees and by not attending a democratic conference that is “open to all” Hirsh’s words become a virtue-signalling self-contradiction. As I wrote on 28th March 2025 on this same subject, even Shylock was prepared to talk to his sworn enemy. Hirsh et al should do the same.

Witness is at JW3 until 2nd April

Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig - Review

JW3, London

***

Written by Nick Cassenbaum

Directed by Abi Anderson

Debbie Chazen

London’s Jewish cultural centre JW3 makes its first foray into the seasonal (and traditionally secular) world of pantomime with a schmaltzified take on the classic yarn of Little Red Riding Hood. Taking an obscure connection into the evil world of corporate greed (ergo the Big Bad Pig) and an even more obscure connection involving the dame’s flatulence, a curious tale emerges that revolves around saving the Jewish festival of Chanukah.

This is a story that the little-ones will enjoy for sure, but if a pantomime is to truly be family entertainment then there needs to be some comedy meat (and sauce) for the grown-ups to laugh at too. Debbie Chazen puts in a game performance as dame Mother Hoodman, but she lacks both the heft and the cojones to make her character soar. A decent dame needs (ideally) to be played by a bloke with the recognised gravitas that enables us to laugh both at, and with, his drag-festooned character. It’s a tough, complex, role to fulfil and one can understand the producer’s casting challenge: Who is there in the Jewish acting world that can fit that bill?

Elsewhere the company all put in a fine shift, Tiago Fonseca’s Bubbah being a classy display of physical comedy in particular. Josh Middleton (who has also arranged the show’s excellent musical accompaniment) directs his 3-piece band from on high.

This is a noble effort from JW3, albeit more purimspiel than pantomime. If there are future plans for a seasonal panto to play here then their script and casting needs a lot more work if they are to succeed in delivering festive fun for all the family.

Runs until 7th January 2024

Photo credit: Jane Hobson

Listen, We're Family

JW3, London

***

Written by Kerry Shale and Matthew Lloyd
Directed by Matthew Lloyd

(l-r) Kerry Shale, Isy Suttie, Maggie Steed and Tom Berish in rehearsal

Listen, We’re Family is a work of Jewish verbatim theatre, so bang up to date that when a character talks about keeping kosher even the recent horse-meat scandal gets a mention. Four actors play out the real-life spoken words of a range of interviewees across an age spectrum that stretches from young adults through to a nonagenarian East End barber.

It’s an intimately/incestuously constructed piece with Shale, who co-wrote, acting the elder male parts, whilst co-writer Lloyd also directs and though the dialog is a selection of brilliantly captured vignettes, the show is more like leafing through a live action scrapbook, rather than following a drama with an engaging plot and protagonists that we might possibly care about. To emphasise the fact that the actors are mouthing the actual words of real people, the performers all wear headphones throughout. This is a gimmick that only serves to create a virtual “fifth wall”, distancing the actors from audience. Verbatim is fine, Alecky Blythe has proved that at the National Theatre with her stunning London Road, it only requires good actors to learn a script. This show’s headphones distract and insult the audience.

The performances though are all good with some that are outstanding. Maggie Steed’s elder woman ranges from a maternal homemaker lighting Sabbath candles in her 60s through to an 80 year old widow, distraught that her separation from her husband led him to commit suicide. The insights that Steed brings are brutally stark and her performance is at times deeply moving.

Shale’s characters are predominantly middle age men, all with surprising stories, though his 91 year old barber is possibly the best portrayal of an old Jew since Eddie Murphy donned the white slap to play Saul in Coming To America. There is bittersweet irony and comedy aplenty throughout the script and Shale segues seamlessly between his roles. He will make for an interesting Willy Loman one day.

Isy Suttie is an engaging performer in the first act, covering the women under 50, with a particularly fascinating turn as an Austrian Holocaust émigré who fled to Canada before coming to London. Suttie brings the complex nuances of this survivor into a fascinating relief. As a younger whining wife however, too many of her other roles, particularly after the interval become indistinguishable and there is a sense of lazy writing here, with a failure to bring out the full potential of this talented young actress. Tom Berish as the younger man presents some of the least conventional characters. His gay guy is a refreshingly honest portrayal of a sexuality that is still viewed with prejudice by some within the Jewish community and his performance gives a pleasing challenge to too many age-old stereotypes.

In London Road Blythe crafted a clever musical via the verbatim genre, working around the most difficult of topics. By comparison, Shale and Lloyd’s work drifts. They present little more than a well-acted documentary, holding up images that whilst being comfortingly recognisable or even perhaps challenging to many in the audience, still offer little more than a series of familiar landscapes. (Though one of Shale's non-observant characters' references to the comforting familiarity of the cadences of Kaddish, the universal Jewish mourner’s prayer, is an inspired inclusion.) The recurring themes of dysfunctionality that the characters display suggests a skewed and sensationalised set of stories that are at odds with reality. Many Jewish families are flawed for sure, (so whose isn’t?) but there is more good out there than this play would suggest. 

Nonetheless, credit to JW3. It’s a bold, bravely commissioned work that is finely performed. One looks forward to more provocative theatre from this exciting and beautiful new venue.