Reviews of The Holy Rosenbergs in London starring Tracy-Ann Oberman

" Cake, comedy, and a furious row over Gaza"

"Tracy-Ann Oberman leads a fine cast in the Menier’s revival of Ryan Craig’s sharp play, which explores knotty ethical family dilemmas against the backdrop of war in Israel"

"... at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Lindsay Posner’s revival of Ryan Craig’s family drama explores the kind of knotty ethical dilemmas that [Arthur] Miller made his own."

"Ryan, though, adds wry humour to the mix. This is an evening where a debate about Israel, the morality of war and the meaning of community can suddenly land a sharp blow to the funny bone."

"Time and again, you find yourself laughing through the pain while admiring the finely wrought performances from a cast led by Tracy-Ann Oberman."

"Oberman always holds your attention as the indomitable Lesley, the kind of matriarch who thinks a cup of tea and a slice of cake can bring peace in our time."

"Despite a few fluffed lines, Nicholas Woodeson grows in stature as the blustering David. And as Ruth, there is another astute performance from Dorothea Myer-Bennett"

"Suburban Jewish family chew over morals and macaroons"

"Tracy-Ann Oberman stars in this absorbing and timely revival of Ryan Craig’s 2011 comic tragedy, set over one fraught evening"

"A death in the family is always a reckoning. In this absorbing revival of Ryan Craig’s play from 2011, it is also an unravelling"

"Craig describes his plays as “comic tragedies”, and there’s certainly humour in Lindsay Posner’s finely acted production"

"This is a horribly apposite moment for a revival: British Jewry is embattled but painfully conflicted."

"Still timely and thought-provoking"

"Excellent revival of Ryan Craig’s 2011 play about an British-Jewish family in crisis"

"The Middle East is on fire – again. So Ryan Craig’s brilliantly provocative play, The Holy Rosenbergs, is more relevant than ever."

"... this revival of Craig’s family drama... retains all of its power to disturb."

"Craig introduces more layers of complication, Arthur Miller style, examining both the emotional lives of the Rosenbergs and the politics of the Middle East."

"If anything, the play is a bit too rich in detail, and the plot twists could be more sharply delivered. Yet there’s a lot to enjoy here: the characterization, especially of the proud yet agitated David, is superb and Craig gives each character plenty of room to express their points of view."

"Lindsay Posner’s well-focused production, which balances pain with humour"

"Some bits might feel a touch clunky, but the same applies to Ibsen. The Holy Rosenbergs is a powerful reminder, if ever this is needed, that an excellent piece of new writing is news that stays news."

"Watching Lindsay Posner’s powerful revival at the Menier Chocolate Factory, slightly tightened and focused but still set in 2009, its resonance... seems almost deafening."

"... the play’s strength is that it grounds its arguments so firmly in a family, bound by tradition and love but separated by politics."

"The cast are simply superb"

"Craig also begins to lean heavily into a discussion of familial guilt that owes too great a debt to Arthur Miller’s All My Sons, and the final confrontation between Ruth and her father doesn’t quite ring true. But Posner and his cast make sure the tension never lessens."

"The Holy Rosenbergs is an imperfect play, but a brave and intelligent one too."

"Ryan Craig’s 2011 play about a north London Jewish family divided over Israel/Palestine remains grimly topical"

"... it’s obvious why director Lindsay Posner might choose to revive The Holy Rosenbergs."

"The fact you could make this play today and it would be equally relevant is why it feels more relevant than if it was actually made today. If that makes sense."

"Without ever seeming to aggressively both sides it, Craig’s play is compassionate to everyone and, despite some eye watering moments, it seeks to empathise rather than condemn."

"There’s a Miller-esque tone to the domestic side of it, with Woodeson’s struggling caterer David having a whiff of Willy Loman to him as he blithely fails to grasp that he’s yesterday’s man."

"The trouble is that for all its bracing relevance, the Israel/Gaza stuff is so bombastic as to overwhelm the more nuanced family tragedy."

"Posner’s production is conservative in its naturalism – the songs are the most flamboyant thing about it – but he gets fine performances out of his cast, particularly Dorothea Myer-Bennett as Ruth"

"A serious but clumsy bid to show how Gaza impacts Jews"

"This show starring Tracy-Ann Overman at Menier Chocolate Factory brings contemporary moral conundrums into an already-packed drama set in a Jewish family home"

"Existential troubles pile up on a London Jewish family in Ryan Craig’s depressingly relevant but contrived play from 2011, where the moral conundrums of the Gaza conflict spill and sprawl into a naff Edgware living room."

"It’s the concentration of issues rather than the core story that stretches credibility."

"And the themes debated – Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, ideas of individual and collective responsibility, the importance of the human stories behind the death tolls – have not changed or softened."

"But the way argument is loaded into the play feels forced, particularly in a blatantly engineered second-act showdown"

"This clunkiness was accentuated on opening night by various small fluffs and stumbles suggesting Lindsay Posner’s production wasn’t quite ready."

"The women come out of it best, with Oberman both very funny and then suddenly deeply moving as the flurried, fussing “Les”."

"This is a serious, and at times seriously funny, bid to show how events in Gaza impact Jews elsewhere, but also a clumsy one."

"Remains thought-provoking"

"Strong performances hold together this knotty, overstuffed drama about tensions within the Anglo-Jewish community"

"... Ryan Craig’s spiky drama about a North London Jewish family torn apart by their divergent politics has only grown more pertinent in the intervening years of intractable conflict and deepening political polarisation."

"Though Craig’s writing is contrived... the piece remains thought-provoking. Director Lindsay Posner sets a cracking pace that never flags, smoothly segueing between each set-piece debate while drawing out the text’s sly, dark humour."

"Among a strong ensemble cast, Dorothea Myer-Bennett stands out with a tautly controlled performance as prodigal daughter Ruth"

"By the play’s end, these complicating factors have been left intentionally unresolved. But Posner ensures that the Rosenbergs’ strained, yet unshakeable love for one another shines through all the darkness, offering hope that they can move forward, despite their seemingly insoluble differences."