DOG'S CHOSEN
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An Anglo-Welsh Jewish atheist explores his Hebrew roots
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"Very thought-provoking. Fantastic performance!" "So good to hear and see politics/passion, strong narration of powerful and complex issues" "A valuable and necessary work. Thank you." "Provocative - provoking. Delivered with great aplomb." "A powerful view of how someone feels about the time we are living in - well done for writing the show you didn't want to write!" Audience reviews from Barnstaple Fringe TheatreFest |
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In contrast to his other one-handers, Robert Cohen's latest sees the writer/performer taking the stage as himself, reflecting wryly on his life's experiences to date as an Anglo-Welsh Jewish atheist.
Raised in a secular home but schooled in a Christian environment, he grew up knowing far more about The Opposition (so to speak) than about his own heritage; and even what little faith he had was destined to be lost, in the mid-1980s, with a moment of blinding revelation not on the road to Damascus but on Guildhall Hill in Norwich. |
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Yet, atheism notwithstanding, he’s always had a sense of being a Jew - and, though the writing of Dog's Chosen was prompted by the Labour Party's anti-semitism wars, those increasingly bitter wranglings have merely brought to light what he's been sensing for a number of years in British society at large.
"The running sore of the Israel/Palestine situation, that certainly doesn't help – but then, there's always been hostility in certain quarters; what I notice more of late is the disturbing growth in the number of people – often apparently intelligent, well-educated people – who think that all Jews are Israeli and vice versa. In truth, though, I’ve been shrugging off anti-semitism most of my life – and the irony is, I’m not even Jewish. My mum wasn’t that way inclined, and thus nor am I, at least not in Orthodox terms. But, as I always say, try telling that to the Nazis!”
"The running sore of the Israel/Palestine situation, that certainly doesn't help – but then, there's always been hostility in certain quarters; what I notice more of late is the disturbing growth in the number of people – often apparently intelligent, well-educated people – who think that all Jews are Israeli and vice versa. In truth, though, I’ve been shrugging off anti-semitism most of my life – and the irony is, I’m not even Jewish. My mum wasn’t that way inclined, and thus nor am I, at least not in Orthodox terms. But, as I always say, try telling that to the Nazis!”
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Kicking off with the recollection of an anti-semitic encounter at the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe (a potential punter refused a flyer for High Vis, dismissing it as the work of an “Israeli” playwright), Cohen proceeds, in Dog’s Chosen, to hark back to the unique childhood of an Anglo-Welsh half-Jew, schooled amongst Christians, disconnected from his Hebrew roots, and yet, for all that, no less prey to casual bigotry from children and adults alike. He goes on to reflect on his people’s place in the wider cosmos, as well as pondering on his own place in the much-fabled “global Jewish conspiracy”.
Dog's Chosen premiered at the Stroud Theatre Festival in September 2018, and has since been seen at The Welly, Brighton, and at the Fringe TheatreFest in Barnstaple. |
