CULTURE
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Deaf Republic ★★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
As we meet townsfolk, including a brothel madam (Derbhle Crotty) and two of her girls (Lisa Kelly and Kate Finegan), a puppet Petya and a gun-toting puppet soldier (elsewhere, soldiers are played by Dylan Tonge Jones), it becomes impossible not to care about their fate. The sight of puppets drawn limp and lifeless into the air during the fighting is…
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2.36 ★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
An accomplished two-hander from some fresh talent that reveals the ugly intricacies within a brother-sister relationship Sibling rivalry is the baseline of this one-act play for two that had its first performances at Camden Fringe this season. The intriguing title, 2.36, does not refer to its length or ratings. It alludes to the UK’s average family size. After all, as…
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Misophonia ★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
Both perspectives of father and daughter are interlaced in this debut novel from 29-year-old German author Dana Vowinckel, offering a compelling look at the modern Jewish (broken) family. Similar to her protagonist, Vowinckel was born in Berlin to American-German Jewish parents and spent her childhood between Chicago and her native city. Originally released in 2023 in Germany, where it won…
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Haus of Dy-lan ★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
The self-professed ‘Jewponese’ comic makes a fun-filled, glamorous and amusing song and dance of his Fringe debut As if it wasn’t hard enough for a Fringe performer on a quiet (by festival standards) Monday night, competing for punters with the multitude of other shows, a great big massive storm named Floris blows in to disrupt any public transport entering Edinburgh.…
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Brigadoon ★★★★
A magical revival of the 1947 musical about a disappearing Scottish town by the celebrated American Jewish team Lerner and Loewe After an announcement in Gaelic, a procession of drummers and pipers marches on to applause and the excitement in the air palpable. A 12-strong band, conducted by Laura Bangay on keys, plays beneath a bank of purple heather, evoking…
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Autumn reads — Jewish Renaissance
My Name is Stramerby Mikołaj Łoziński, trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Pushkin Press, £18.99) In his third novel, the Polish writer and photographer Mikołaj Łoziński explores the everyday lives of a Jewish family in the lead up to World War II. The story is set in the Polish town of Tarnów, where we meet Nathan and Rywka Stramer, along with their six…
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Disaster is My Muse ★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
Maus took 13 years – “a long-term disease”, as Spiegelman puts it – and inevitably exacted a huge emotional toll. Mouly describes how he was still wrestling with horribly dark material while she was captivated by the early stages of motherhood. His daughter Nadja, herself a cartoonist, generously suggests that her parents “absorbed the horrors so we didn’t have to”.…
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Memory, loss and resilience in the 80th year since the liberation of Bergen-Belsen — Jewish Renaissance
Sunday’s commemoration brought together survivors and their descendants, including those born in the Bergen-Belsen DP camp, alongside international dignitaries. Their testimonies, rich with memory, pain and quiet strength, served as a powerful reminder not only of what was endured, but of what was rebuilt. A tribute to resilience and to the lives that carry its legacy forward. The weather remained…
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My Name is Rachel Corrie ★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
Now, two decades later, My Name… has been revived by an (almost) all-Jewish team willing to brave the potential backlash, comprising British-German actor Sascha Shinder, British-South African producer Gabriel Speechly and Scottish director Susan Worsfold. And it couldn’t have come at a more pertinent time, with tensions relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict only heightening following the 7 October attacks in…
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NIUSIA ★★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
As the scenes shift, Beth takes on the role of her grandmother at various points in her life, seamlessly morphing into character to give the stories vibrancy. “I said my Nanna was a bitch and I stand by that,” she says. “I didn’t get her vivaciousness … I got the bitter [side].” She starts throwing the books and boxes around…
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