What I liked
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What I didn't like
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My overall impression
JEW, INTERRUPTED is a tender autobiographical piece. Ethan is a strong writer and performer, even if I’m not sure what his message truly was.
I struggle to write this review because I don’t want to come off as negative—I did enjoy the show—it’s just not exactly what I was expecting. I don’t want to imply that Jewish people aren’t allowed to simply tell our stories without Israel obscuring the rest of the conversation, but given the marketing I thought Israel itself would be more of a centerpiece than it was.
Instead, this show was about this person’s individual experience growing up as a Jewish-American—which includes those feelings of cognitive dissonance that Israel provides on the periphery. Given the fact that Israel qualifies as one of the hardest things to write about, I can’t blame anyone for not making it the primary conversation, but it is difficult in this political climate not to want that as an audience member. As a Jewish-American myself, I think I’m also starved for these discussions.
As you can see, the show induced introspection for me. I’d be curious to see its evolution in the future. As it stands, this collection of stories primarily functions as a scrapbook of memories and a love letter to family.
