A fast-paced and acerbic take on craftsmanship, personal desire and artistic ideals, the European premiere of The Retreat will play at the Finborough Theatre.
Jewish-Canadian writer Jason Sherman’s play explores an excess of passion in the screenwriting process.
When Rachel, an outspoken Hebrew school teacher longing to be a screenwriter, is taken under the wing of producing pair David and Jeff, conflicting sensibilities about art, money, and storytelling fuel an intense relationship between the three of them.
While Jeff is pragmatic about the schlock they put out, David yearns for artistic substance, which he may have found in Rachel’s unwieldy script. But as Rachel and David’s professional relationship starts deepening into something more personal, the conflict between the characters and the art grows.
The Retreat offers a distinctly irreverent, Jewish voice as it questions what happens when professionalism and personal desires collide, reflecting on our hunger for creativity against the constraints of money, work and political division.
Director Emma Jude Harris said: “As an American Jewish director working in the UK, I was thrilled to read Jason Sherman’s 1996 play The Retreat-a cinematic piece of theatre about Jewish identity in the diaspora, inheritance, intergenerational trauma, and the ethics of making art under capitalism. The Retreat interrogates power and gender dynamics in entertainment, not to mention Jewish (geo)politics—both timely subjects to be revisiting in 2023 as we work towards justice on a global scale. I’m honoured to be working with an amazing, Jewish-led creative team and cast to bring this gem of a show to the Finborough.”
Writer Jason Sherman is one of Canada’s most influential and prolific playwrights and a celebrated screenwriter, with a multi-award-winning body of work that has been produced around the world. His awards include Canada’s prestigious literary award, the Governor General’s Award. Among his plays seen in the UK are Patience which marked his UK debut at the Finborough Theatre in 2005, also transferring from The Tarragon Theatre in Toronto.
The cast is Jill Winternitz, Michael Feldsher, Max Rinhart and Jonathan Tafler.
The Retreat is at Finborough Theatre 25 April – 13 May.
