‘Bad Jews’ and ‘Death of a Salesman’

Two plays about Jewish families are currently playing in Philly. The title of Bad Jews makes it clear what it is about. Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman isn’t always considered a Jewish play, but Lane Savadove’s version at EgoPo sets the play squarely in Jewish tradition by starting with a recital of Kaddish by a rabbi (the versatile Russ Widdall) while the characters are sitting shiva (the Jewish period of mourning for the dead) and ending with a Jewish burial scene. In this production, Willy Loman and his family are clearly Jewish.

Reframing the action

Oh, I realized, as the familiar words filled the space, it is called Death of a Salesman, and Miller was Jewish, so that makes sense. The funeral foreshadows the tragedy and frames it as a flashback instead of an unfolding of Willy’s disintegration.

Willy Loman, as portrayed by Ed Swidey, definitely looks Jewish. To see him in the payis, long curls, and black hat —currently a Borsalino fedora — of traditional Orthodox Jewry would not be a stretch, although Willy, like my own family, probably would have wanted to distance himself from his roots as much as possible in dress and manner and speech. Particularly at that time. Particularly for a salesman who wanted to get along with everyone and not stand out as different, as strange. And Loman would have been a name shortened from something much more ethnic sounding, much as my parents’ families chose to change both their first and last names to blend in.

In Bad Jews, all the characters wrestle with how they want to be Jewish in a world where to be Jewish is no longer to be excluded or threatened (the current situation in Europe is not considered here). Is Judaism, they ask, something to be perpetuated or discarded?

Outrageous behavior

Both plays are about dysfunctional families. Although Death of a Salesman was written at a time when Willy’s behavior as father and husband would have been a lot more acceptable than it is today, Bad Jews is clearly aware of the outrageous behavior of all of its participants. Both plays address a particular family dynamic while at the same time exploring a larger societal change.

Salesman is not only about the downfall of a once-successful salesman and the price that exacts from him and his family, but it is also about the demise of a way of life. Willy’s old car no longer works, the no-brand-name refrigerator has gone on the fritz, and he longs for the familiar Swiss cheese rather than the newfangled whipped American cheese. America is changing, and Willy can no longer cope.

His sons Biff (Sean Lally), the onetime football hero who has lost his way, and Happy (Kevin Chick), a problematic character who goes from seemingly socially inept to ladies’ man and ultimate salesman, simultaneously revere and dislike their father. Linda (Mary Lee Bednarek), the loyal wife, worries that Willy will die and she will lose the life she has always known and the man she loves despite the way he treats her.

The Jewish way of life

In Bad Jews, Liam (Davy Raphaely), a disaffected Jew who didn’t even show up for his grandfather’s funeral, wants his grandfather’s gold Chai, Hebrew letters worn on a chain, so he can offer it to his non-Jewish girlfriend when he proposes to her. He wants to carry on a romantic family tradition, although he himself has little interest in his own heritage. His sister, Daphna Feygenbaum (Sofie Yavorsky), a driven, passionate woman who insults everyone who doesn’t agree with her, wants the Chai because her latest passion is to become a rabbi. She is, she believes, the better Jew. Brother Jonah (Greg Fallick), who identifies more with his grandfather than the others, just wants to be left out of it. At stake here is not the American way of life, but the Jewish way of life. “A world without Jews is progress?” worries Daphna.

Why does Liam’s girlfriend, Melody (Laura Giknis), who claims to have studied to be an opera singer although she can’t sing, even want to be part of this family? Liam behaves so badly to his relatives, why would she want him after this? Does a romantic gesture compensate for the inevitable unhappy future with this person? I can see her as a future Linda Loman, smiling as she too is shushed into obedience.

In your face

The families in both plays shout, they shove, they get in each other’s faces. They never sit still. In a world of self-involvement, these characters never listen to each other; they barely hear themselves. I don’t know any families, religion aside, where there is so much physical confrontation. Is this just a matter of playing larger-than-life characters in a small space?

I saw Bad Jews with a decidedly not-Jewish audience — many didn’t know what this Chai, the MacGuffin about which the play was built, was until almost the end. I wondered what those who didn’t know thought this play was about. And what did they think about all these people always shouting at each other?

Death of a Salesman poses another problem for me that has nothing to do with ethnicity. Although I can appreciate the masterfulness of the set, and the interesting changes Savadove has made in staging and sound effects while maintaining the integrity of the script, I cannot but see it through today’s enlightened eyes. To me, Willy is an abusive husband and father, and while I understand the story and the family dynamics, I can no longer grieve for him the way I once might have. Whether it has to do with religion, politics or society, some things just have to change.

To read another review of Bad Jews by Steve Cohen, click here.

To read Carol Rocamora's review of the 2013 New York production of Bad Jews, click here.