REVIEW: We Had a World, Hampstead Theatre
Compelling contemporary tale about a grandmother's love is witty and entertaining
If you think you’ve seen every play written about Jewish families, then think again, because We Had a World is different, It is a contemporary, gritty, honest, yet witty and entertaining true story about playwright Joshua Harmon’s relationship with his mother and grandmother.
All three cast members give virtuoso performances. Ryan Kopel plays Joshua with sensitivity and charm and one cannot fail to warm to this delightful young man whose life was enriched by an unconventional grandma whose greatest joy was taking her grandson on outings, and not always to age-appropriate or suitable places.
Then there is Ellen, his mother, superbly played by Anna Fracolini. A hard-nosed lawyer whose relationship with her mother, her son, and the wider family, is complex. And last, but very much not least, there is Renee, the grandmother, with so many different sides to her, played by Suzanne Bertish.
The compelling story spans 30 years and reveals the dynamics and interaction, and indeed, love, across three generations.
Commenting on his relationship with his grandmother, Harmon recalls, when he was aged just five, his Nana signed the two of them up for a two-week course at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Then she took me to a gallery where we saw something called Pubic Hair on Soap. It was exactly as it sounds.”
One need not worry that Joshua Harmon is in some way being disloyal because, when she was dying, his grandmother asked him to make sure he wrote a play about the family, having previously said to make her “as bitter and vitriolic as possible.”
A masterclass in how less is more, the minimal stage design – a chunk of ice, a vermilion painted backdrop, simple wooden seating and a handful of props- combine with subtle lighting to great effect.
Joshua Harmon, whose previous works include Bad Jews and Prayer For The French Republic, which was voted Best Play at the 2024 Tony awards, wrote the play during lockdown.
In an interview he said the core idea at the heart of this play is how two or three people can look at the same thing and see something entirely different. “There is something fundamentally unknowable about another person’s experience, even when – and may especially when – we are closest to them. The idea is resonant for me now beyond family structures, politically, socially. You and your neighbour are looking at the same world but you’re not seeing the same things.”
We Had a World is at Hampstead Theatre until 4 July.
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