Everything and the Kitchen Sink for A People at Theatre Wit

It’s a tough time to be Jewish in the world.  The Middle East conflicts, the vitriolic culture wars, and the variety of ways to “be Jewish”--all has added up to uncomfortable gatherings of the Tribe in the diaspora.  Passover was awkward this year with several no go conversational topics and rewritten Haggadahs.   I was recently lectured by an evangelist Christian on my Jewishness. Which is to say that creating a work about 5000 years of Jewish culture to be rendered by a diverse cast of 8 in a mere 90 minutes is like walking into a minefield. A People, a co-production of Chicago’s Arts Judaica and the Florida based YILove Jewish is said to be a mosaic play: a work made of broken fragments each contributing to an overall pattern. 

The cast is compelling and talented. The Story Theatre-esque stage set up of simple chairs and blocks with the device of having two trunks at either end of the thrust filled with all costumes, props and puppets! with a Jewish star taped out on the floor gave the show a devised theatre feel despite being written by playwright LM Feldman. But the spartan stage also harkens back to the need for Jews to be able to pack up and go at a moment's notice.  There is a great deal of humor in this show.  And it did hold up a mirror, as promised, to a cultural landscape that I am intimately familiar with. The interweaving of weekly Shabbat and Havdalah ritual was comforting even on a Thursday.  But I came away from the evening not really understanding what the underlying message is.  I am ok with non linear work and a topic this big is well served by collaged, impressionistic theatre. But sifting through the imagery and scenes where everyone was talking even shouting at once left me confused and curiously devoid of a sense of meaning in all the strife and the long line of history. Some of the more challenging aspects could go slower and the labels that cast members donned should be larger for those of us long past the eagle eye age of life.  The work is strongest when it lands on a specific character and a specific story as when Daniel Boughton channeled a Polish immigrant survivor of the Holocaust and only wanted, his whole life, to study Torah. The story of the hat gave a nice leitmotif to navigate by.   The work is strewn with fun little known Judaica tidbits and serves as a whirlwind sprawling tour of an ancient oft misunderstood culture that faces new challenges in the current world order. It also serves up strikingly good Challah bread. 

In a culture where it feels safer to not be “out” about one’s non mainstream identity, it is refreshing to sit in a theatre and take in the melting pot chicken soup/borscht mix that is all of Jewish heritage.   A People is playing through Sunday June 28th, 2026 (leave extra time to navigate Pride fun if you go on Sunday) at Theatre Wit, 1229 West Belmont in Chicago IL.  For tickets and info go to https://www.theaterwit.org/tickets/productions/572/performances

For  reviews go to https://www.theatreinchicago.com/