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1 week ago | 
jewishnews.co.uk | Poppy Shulman
Israeli playwright's show Sharif shines light on little-known but important role
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Jan 30, 2025 | 
jewishnews.co.uk | Poppy Shulman |Louisa Walters
It’s fair to say that most people know when the Second World War started, but perhaps not so many are aware of the events that actually started the war. Canned Goods is a true story, set in 1939, about a little known, but pivotal moment, in history when Hitler devised a plan to justify the Nazi invasion of Poland. Three men are arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis. A Jewish teacher, a Roman Catholic farmer, and a German janitor, all of whom seem to have nothing in common.
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Jan 30, 2025 | 
jewishnews.co.uk | Poppy Shulman |Louisa Walters
Theatre lovers who missed out on seeing the hugely popular What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank are in for a treat, because the play has returned to the Marylebone Theatre. Playing for a strictly limited new run following a host of accolades and four and five star reviews.
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Dec 6, 2024 | 
jewishnews.co.uk | Poppy Shulman |Louisa Walters
Some good news for UK’s Jewish creatives this week, as they reel from hearing that a major Jewish donor to the arts has resigned her positions because of ‘the alarming rise of antisemitism’ and the ‘tacit normalisation of hate’, and that the Tate gallery is being urged by its latest Turner Prize winner, and hundreds of others, to remove art purchased by Jewish- not Israeli- donors.
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Dec 6, 2024 | 
jewishnews.co.uk | Poppy Shulman |Louisa Walters
To successfully write a Holocaust themed play can be a huge challenge for even the most gifted playwright. How does one put into words the tragedy of one of the most horrific episodes in history? But South African-born Jewish playwright and director Geoff Williams accomplishes this in The Grey Zone telling the tale through the eyes of Jewish Holocaust survivor Primo Levi, who is trying to write one last story.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
jewishnews.co.uk | Poppy Shulman |Louisa Walters
Now in its fourth year, Tsitsit – the Jewish Fringe Festival – has an important role to play. Not only is it an essential platform to stage the work of Jewish performers, it is also a much-needed lifeline to support Jewish creatives. But it almost didn’t happen. Founder and director Alastair Falk explains: “When the tragic events of 7 October happened last year, we thought long and hard about whether we should cancel the 2023 festival.
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Jun 20, 2024 | 
jewishnews.co.uk | Poppy Shulman |Louisa Walters
How did a German-speaking Jewish lawyer from Prague end up with the linguistic accolade of an eponymous adjective listed in the dictionary, namely ‘Kafkaesque’, meaning “of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings and having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality”. Kafka, born 3 July 1883 to Julie and Hermann, is the author of some remarkable works, notably The Metamorphosis, The Trial and The Castle.
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May 30, 2024 | 
jewishnews.co.uk | Poppy Shulman |Louisa Walters
Hot on the heels of last week’s conference on the future of Jewish Theatre and Jewish musicals comes Tom Lehrer is Teaching Math and Doesn’t Want to Talk to you. Playing at Upstairs at the Gatehouse Theatre in Highgate, this play, about the American Jewish songwriter, maths prodigy and polymath Tom Lehrer, stars three performers, two of whom are Jewish – Shahaf Ifhar, who trained at Tel Aviv Musical Theatre Academy, and pianist and musical director Harry Style.
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May 15, 2024 | 
jewishnews.co.uk | Poppy Shulman
A stellar production, with a host of award-winning performers and musicians, A Song of Songs comes to London from the USA where it won The San Francisco Critics Award for the best new production. Written and performed by the hugely talented Israeli-born actress Ofra Daniel, it is a love story. But, be warned, it is not an old-fashioned musical in the traditional sense.
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May 11, 2024 | 
jewishnews.co.uk | Poppy Shulman
Say the name William Kunstler to any American lawyer and chances are they will know exactly who you are talking about, because Kunstler was a leading civil rights lawyer whose life’s work was devoted to representing the victims of injustice. And now the story of his remarkable career as a civil rights activist has been brought to life in award-winning playwright Jeffrey Sweet’s play Kunstler.
