Shalom Baby

Synopsis

In 1930s Berlin - an intriguing city of Jazz and overground cabaret overpowered by the rise of Hitler and World War II - the daughter of a Jewish family falls in love with their black shabbesgoy (servant). Fast-forward to the tale of a mixed-race couple in seemingly unprejudiced modern-day Brooklyn, where the same family is coping with a number of calamities. Shalom Baby is a touching and very funny exploration of love, family and friendship.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 26 October 2011

Rikki Beadle-Blair’s new play, Shalom Baby at Stratford East, is a hard-to-follow blizzard of slogans, poetry break-outs and sudden love stories that claims historical provenance in Berlin, Brooklyn and Auschwitz without establishing either the truth of the locations, or indeed that of the characters.

The Theatre Royal, one of the most beautiful Victorian houses in London, has been altered into a traverse arrangement, with the audience sitting on either side of the proscenium. Nothing much is gained from this apart from indulging the frenetic movement of the cast and the quick-changing focus of dramatic attention.

A Jewish family takes in a black “Shabbes Goy”, a non-Jew who can help out around the house when religious observance takes over, and the daughter falls in love; he asks for her hand – and indeed the rest of her – in marriage. Meanwhile, an adopted Balkan boy, “a souvenir from Sarajevo” is immersed in a...

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Latest User Review

Misha - 1 December 2011:

Excellent production and fantastic cast, not sure if all reviewers here have seen the same play! Shalom Baby at Theatre Royal Stratford East played to full house, rapturous applause and has top rate reviews elsewhere! Loved it, thought-provoking, poetic, moving and funny, as Lynn Gardner says it has a big heart! ...

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