Jewish, single and perfectly pickled
The writer/star and producer of a show returning to the Park Theatre this month talk about navigating singledom in north west London
Louisa Walters is Features Editor at the Jewish News and specialises in food and travel writing
“I don’t belong here with the fishballs. I don’t even like fishballs. Guess I’ll just die alone,” wails Ari who is 29 ¾ and desperate to find a husband.
Created by writer and actress Deli Segal, Ari is the star of Pickle, a hugely entertaining and brilliantly funny play that returns to the Park Theatre later this month by popular demand.
Though it’s described as a one-woman show, Pickle is really a two-hander because of Ari’s formidable Jewish conscience – a dominating presence – which continues to make itself heard throughout the play as its host negotiates her way through the troubled waters of being a young single Jewish female in north London. Regrettably Ari still lives at home with her parents, but in order to escape she had to find Mr Right via numerous Mr Wrongs who are so vividly described, you might even know them.
“I felt like there weren’t any plays or TV shows that represented the contemporary, Jewish, young female experience,” says Deli, 32. “There are a lot of stories about the Holocaust, or history like Ridley Road, and of course there was Friday Night Dinner, but nothing that showcased the experience that I had growing up in a north west London Jewish family.”
The show isn’t autobiographical, per se, but Deli has experienced many of its themes and has grown up in the world of Jewish dating, singles events and Purim parties, which she portrays to hilarious effect. “There is such rich humour, entertainment, heart and warmth in Judaism, all of which I wanted to bring to a Jewish show. After two years of lockdown people don’t want to watch something that’s about suffering. Having two hats on and thinking from both the writer’s perspective and the performer’s perspective was daunting but writing your own show makes it a lot easier to learn!”
Tanya Truman, 27 (pictured, left), who produced the show, says that while Ari sees the world through the eyes of the young, single Jewish female, there are a lot of different things that audience members can pull from the show and connect to.
When I saw Pickle in May, I related to it as the mother of a daughter who’s a similar age to Ari. But I also found myself thinking about my own dating experiences as a young, single female. Thirty years on, it appears the themes are still the same within a Jewish family.
Deli agrees. “Judaism is updating but some things remain quite conservative, and the values tend to be quite traditional. As we progress as women in the modern world, all these things kind of evolve, but there is always that slight tension between reconciling one’s beliefs with something that feels true to them. That’s something I tried to explore in Pickle.”
There’s a hilarious scene in the play where Ari dates a guy from New York. “I’m really interested in the British Jewish community, in comparison with America, where we are less of a minority. Jewish culture and American culture are etched together and there’s a sense of being more at ease with one’s Jewishness. As an example, not feeling awkward at work when you say, ‘I’m taking off time for Jewish Holidays’. I’m sure we’ve all experienced that slightly uneasy feeling about things relating to our Jewishness, because they’re not necessarily understood. In America, most people understand what kosher is. It’s the parlance, it’s in the fabric of the society. Whereas here, I feel like it’s not. And as a Jew you’re always coming up against that – having to explain yourself, and then that makes you question ‘what am I?’ and ‘how do I feel about my Jewishness?’ That is something I was trying to circle around in the play.”
The May run was completely sold out, which encouraged Deli and Tanya to carry on with their Pickle journey. So having received an initial round of funding from The Arts Council, they approached it again and were delighted to be awarded more money. The Park offered them a second, longer run and the play has also been invited to the Manchester Jewish Museum in December and the Radlett Centre in January.
“There’s been a big shift in the last few years where underrepresented backgrounds are being recognised for their stories and for sharing those stories with an authentic team,” says Tanya. “There have been shows about the Jewish experience that haven’t included Jews in the process. I think we attracted the Arts Council to our piece because we are a female, Jewish-led core team. And whilst we’re not saying you have to be Jewish to be on the team or you have to be female, those core values matter to us. I think that shines through.”
Their ultimate goal is to get the show in to a London theatre and attract a diverse audience. “Bad Jews was just on in the West End, which shows there is space for Jewish work to be in a central location,” says Tanya. “At the Park it was largely a Jewish audience but there were non-Jews, many of whom said they still connected to the piece.”
“It’s essentially about your parents, your background and clashing with your choices,” notes Deli, who read English at Cambridge, before studying at East 15 drama school. “That’s universal for people from lots of different cultures.”
Working mostly as an actor, the success of Pickle has spurred Deli on to write projects with a bigger scope. “I’m open to writing about all kinds of experiences and I’m thinking about the male Jewish experience.”
Trained in musical theatre as a performer, Tanya found herself producing during the pandemic. “The majority of the work I’ve produced has been with females and a lot of it with Jewish content as well. My next project is a horror play about Jewish demonology, so it’s very, very different. I didn’t go to Jewish school and many my friends are actually non-Jewish, but I found a Jewish theatre creative circle, which has been amazing.”
Pickles, fishballs and suspicious parents – it doesn’t get much more Jewish than that.
Pickle opens at Park Theatre on 14 November. parktheatre.co.uk
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