Feature

Stage: High Holidays

Alan Gross’ play is a coming of age story about a teenager and his dysfunctional family—a domineering father, a foul-mouthed mother, and a rebellious, Bob Dylan–loving older brother.

Goodman Theatre
Chicago
(312) 443-3800

**

Alan Gross’ High Holidays starts as a “Midwestern version of a Neil Simon comedy,” said Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune. We’re introduced to Billy Roman, a Jewish teenager coming of age in the 1960s in the fictional town of Iroquois, Ill. Then we meet his family—a domineering shoe salesman father, a foul-mouthed mother, and a rebellious, Bob Dylan–loving older brother—and we start to think of Brighton Beach Memoirs. But High Holidays quickly delves into far more “dysfunctional territory,” with Billy’s parents practicing a kind of parenting just short of child abuse. For the most part, Gross’ play doesn’t include the “notes of love” that could show that these characters actually care for one another. Without such touches, the play’s intended “laugh lines” are not only unfunny, they make the audience complicit in the cruelty.

Two and a half hours of relentless, “anguished ­dialogue” is certainly a lot to take, said Tony Adler in the Chicago Reader. Do we really need to hear Billy’s mother, Essie, ­impolitely threatening to ram a football up his posterior, or his father, Nate, using a “Yiddishism to call him a mental defective”? But Gross’ real mistake is his central character, Billy, whose struggles to master the Torah for his bar mitzvah simply aren’t very compelling. Far more interesting is an “Oedipal triangle” between Nate, Essie, and Billy’s brother Rob that’s never allowed to develop. By failing to make “this glaring bit of dysfunction” the focus, Gross gives us a play that turns out to be as dull as it is traumatic.

Recommended

Saving Spots initiative protects wildcats and cultural traditions in Zambia
A leopard in the wild.
a leopard can change its spots

Saving Spots initiative protects wildcats and cultural traditions in Zambia

Thousands march for democracy in Poland
Protesters march in Poland against the government.
A Polish Protest

Thousands march for democracy in Poland

10 things you need to know today: June 4, 2023
The aftermath of a deadly train crash in India.
Daily briefing

10 things you need to know today: June 4, 2023

More than 260 killed and 900 injured in Indian train crash
The aftermath of a deadly train crash in India.
Rest in Peace

More than 260 killed and 900 injured in Indian train crash

Most Popular

Is Trump's wall working?
International Border Wall Between Tecate California and Tecate Mexico.
Briefing

Is Trump's wall working?

Can Chris Christie make a comeback?
A black and white photo of Chris Christie waving
Profile

Can Chris Christie make a comeback?

YouTube to stop deleting false claims about 2020 election
The YouTube logo seen in London in 2019.
Reversing Course

YouTube to stop deleting false claims about 2020 election