The Wanderers Play Review

Marriage is hard. It requires compromise, understanding, and sensitivity to your spouse/significant other’s flaws.

The new play, The Wanderers, by Anna Ziegler follows two Jewish couples (one semi-secular and one religious) and a movie star. Abe (Eddie Kaye Thomas) and Sophie (Sarah Cooper) are married and have two children. Both are writers. But while Abe is successful, Sophie’s career is floundering.

Esther (Lucy Freyer) and Schmuli (Dave Klasko) start out as Hasidic newlyweds. Though all seems well in the beginning, they start to emotionally drift from one another. Schmuli is happy to continue with the traditions that he grew up with. But Esther is eager to expand her world.

The narrative is brought together by an email correspondence that Abe has with actress Julia Cheever (Katie Holmes). Though it starts innocently enough, their relationship becomes deeper than expected.

Set in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, this play is fantastic. Though these characters live in a specific neighborhood and live a specific lifestyle, their stories are universal. It’s about trying to find yourself and knowing that in doing so, you may have to break with everything and everyone you love.

What the playwright does especially well is to humanize the character. With antisemitism on the rise, it is easy to create a 2D stereotype. By making them human, she (hopefully) opens the door to a conversation about what we all have in common. She also brings (much-needed) attention to Jews of color, who are often ignored or pushed aside.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely.

The Wanderers are playing at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre Laura Pels theater in New York City until April 2. Check the website for tickets and showtimes.

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Thoughts On Sarah Cooper and the Lincoln Project

In times of crisis, we look to our political leaders for guidance, comfort, support, and most of all, leadership. Given the multiple crises that the United States is currently experiencing, it should be a no brainer for those in the halls of power. But, as anyone who is reading or watching the news lately can tell you, the lack of national leadership from the top is not as forthcoming as we need and expect it to be.

Which is why we need to remind those in the power that we, the citizens, are the bosses. Not the other way around.

Enter Sarah Cooper and the Lincoln Project.

Sarah Cooper is a comedian and author whose recent video’s of lip-syncing you know who’s comment has gained national attention.

The Lincoln Project is, I think a perfect representation of the times we live in. Run by a group of prominent Republicans (one of whom is George Conway, husband of Presidential mouthpiece Kellyanne Conway) their goal is to ensure that you know who does not win the election in November.

As Americans, we have a proud history (even with all of it’s flaws) of being a free people who stand by the ideals that are the cornerstone of this nation. If we do not speak up and vote in November, the country that we proclaim ourselves to be may no longer exist.