The Matriarchs is currently playing at Theaterlab through September 28.
By Rachel M.
When you hear the song “Yerushalayim” by Miami Boys Choir as part of the music playing before an off Broadway play starts, you are a bit taken by surprise. You wonder how many other people in the small square room even recognize the song and you start to contemplate what the performance will be like. As the play ends, and you hear “Take Me Home Country Road” by John Denver in the closing music, as a Jewish Modern Orthodox woman, you feel “seen” in a way that is very unusual for the New York theater scene.
The Matriarchs, written by Liba Vaynberg, tells the story of six young female friends and their development from middle school through adulthood. What sets this tale apart is that the characters all begin as members of the Modern Orthodox Jewish community. Even within that space, Vaynberg focuses on a very niche group of young women who are learning Talmud as part of their Jewish day school upbringing. For teens, they are knowledgeable, engaged, and questioning, while at the same time being regular young women who talk about boys, parents and snacks.
The first act takes place around a table at one of the girls’ houses, on the Jewish Sabbath where the girls have gathered to learn with one of their mothers, only portrayed via voiceover. Of course, the learning devolves into lots of rich conversation through which we meet the six teenagers and their personas. All of them carry the name of important women in the Bible, where they play more supporting roles. Here as the main characters, in an all female production, through their well-written dialogue, Vaynberg provides a very realistic look at the experience of young women being raised in a world that combines tradition and modernity.
As the story jumps ahead to the two periods of adulthood, where life becomes more complicated, we learn about the paths that each character has chosen – some staying within the community and some finding their place outside of the Orthodox lifestyle. Life’s challenges raise questions of feminism, faith and friendship for the six women whose paths converge at milestone occasions.
The wonderful writing was augmented by seven excellent performances (Rachel Botchan, Molly Carden, Helen Cespedes, Rebecca S’manga Frank, Arielle Goldman, Anna O’Donoghue, and Frankie Placidi), directed masterfully by Dina Vovsi. The cast appeared to be very familiar with the Jewish concepts mentioned throughout the play and with the Hebrew and Aramaic needed to be students of Jewish texts. The authentic portrayals of the trials and tribulations of growing up female in the Orthodox community were appreciated, especially since they are so rarely done well in the mainstream entertainment world.
Vaynberg raises many questions that don’t get resolved for the characters – in perhaps the most realistic fashion. The end is not all tied up in a nice bow, because, as the real matriarchs also understood, life is complicated. And even mothers don’t have all the answers.
Find more information and tickets HERE.
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