I was talking to my mum on Good Friday, and she said she was heading off to church, to hear about Jesus. I told her that my day couldn’t be more different. I was going to see The Jewish Chronicles, to hear the life story of a Jewish man…hang on…
In this show Daniel Cainer shows us his Jewish heritage, his family background and, largely, himself. He does this mainly through song, with introductions and explanations between numbers.
His music is beautiful and, at times, reminiscent of Tim Minchin at his big-ballad-best. On keyboard and, for one song, guitar, even an untrained eye like mine can spot the fact that Daniel Cainer is an extraordinarily accomplished musician. The music and lyrics range from deeply profound and touching to raunchy, energetic and hilarious.
His first song tells the story of the enforced migration of Jews out of Russia and Northern Europe in the first part of the twentieth century. This is a haunting song and Daniel cleverly moves the subtext from the diaspora of the Jews, to broadly encompass ideas about the human condition. This sets the tone of the whole show. This show is no Three Rabbi’s go into a bar…. This is an honest, real and strikingly authentic account of Jewish identity within the broader sense of humanity itself.
Daniel goes out of his way to accommodate the non Jewish members of the audience. He does this by explaining peculiarly Jewish terms and practices. We even got a little lesson in Yiddish 101. I loved this aspect of the show, much preferring someone to invite others into the complexities of the subject, rather than blanching it out to make it so accessible it becomes bland and meaningless. I felt ultimately that there was little of the show I didn’t get, except for the odd inflection or reference that seemed to strike a note with the Jewish members of the audience.
The show is advertised at running at seventy five minutes, however it went for a good hour and a half, so bear that in mind if you’ve got shows lined up after it. That said it certainly didn’t feel over long, in fact when it finished up I thought it couldn’t have been much more than an hour, which is a really good sign.
Whilst there are some great laughs, don’t expect this to be the most consistently funny show of the festival. But this show is a beautiful piece of theatre. It’s polished without being slick, touching without being soppy, satirical without being offensive and educational without being patronising. Really enjoyable and very worthwhile.
For full booking details go to the Melbourne Comedy Festival website