You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy Judy Gold’s solo performance in “25 Questions for a Jewish Mother.” You also don’t have to be a 6-foot-3, Kosher, gay, comedian and mother of two boys to relate to Gold and her clever and comically-inflated account of her varied interactions with Jewish matriarchs.
Gold and writing partner, Kate Moira Ryan, drew their material from the over 50 interviews they conducted with a hodgepodge of Jewish mothers across the country. A sampling of their amusing and tender responses are presented in Gold’s performance, as she convincingly assumes a varied mixture of personalities ranging from a Chinese Orthodox convert whose biggest regret is moving to New Jersey to a sobering Auschwitz survivor. These snippets are intertwined with Gold’s comedic dissection of her own relationship with her endearingly neurotic mother, Rivka or Ruth.
Gold plays the part of her 84 year-old Jewish mother so well that Rivka nearly steals the show herself. The play begins with an actual voice recording of Ruth Gold, nagging audience members to turn off their phones and playfully demanding that they enjoy her daughter’s show. Her daughter then proceeds to perfectly mimic her kvetching, husky, Jersey drawl through a series of stories that reenact their two-way banter and chronicle the growth of their relationship. Ultimately, the focus is on Judy, who despite having a life that is more like “a documentary premiering at a gay film festival in Berlin,” ends up “coming out” as a closeted Jewish mother herself (though clearly and admirably on her own terms).
Gold is no Margaret Mead, but “25 Questions for the Jewish Mother” could almost be considered anthropological, as it displays a cross-section of mothers from the Jewish community who are, whether they admit it or not, perpetuating the cultural traditions and frames of reference that define and connect them. At times the transitions are a bit klutzy, particularly when Gold goes between flashback vignettes of past stand-up routines and her here-and-now narration. However, as a whole, “25 Question for the Jewish Mother” is deeply personal, wondrously witty, and absolutely hilarious.
Gold’s characterizations uproariously propel the Jewish mother stereotype, but the answers she recaps are, at their core, easy to relate with. Whether deliberately, or not, she highlights the phobias, preoccupations, expectations and neuroses that most mothers ubiquitously afflict on their children to varying degrees. Though Gold begins the show on a quest to find out what makes Jewish mothers different from non-Jewish mothers, she also shows what they have in common—which is probably the show’s greatest and most compelling asset.
25 Questions for the Jewish Mother
A one-woman show starring Judy Gold. Written by Kate Moira Ryan with Judy Gold and directed by Karen Kohlhass. Presented by Theater J, 1529 16th Street; Washington, DC. Through February 24th.
Previously in Live DC:
- 5/24: LiveDC: The Adicts @ RNR Hotel
- 5/24: LiveDC: The Donkeys @ Black Cat
- 5/23: LiveDC: The Barr Brothers w/ Kishi Bashi @ The Hamilton
- 5/23: LiveDC: Damien Jurado @ Black Cat
- 5/23: Report: Soundbites 2012
- 5/22: LiveDC: Spirit Animal @ Red Palace
- 5/22: LiveDC: Astra Via @ Black Cat
- 5/22: LiveDC: Father John Misty @ Rock & Roll Hotel
- 5/22: LiveDC: Drive-By Truckers and Lucinda Williams @ Merriweather
- 5/22: Photos: Summer Camp takes the "Ladies of Town" Drag Show
God loves a cheerful giver.
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