JR Outloud

Jewish Renaissance
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JR Outloud

JR's Arts Editor Judi Herman presents her series of podcasts, featuring interviews with leading playwrights, actors and other creatives, as well as guided audio tours of the latest exhibitions with a Jewish cultural interest.

  1. 05/16/2023

    In conversation: Nina Menkes

    Jewish American filmmaker Nina Menkes has been a pioneer of independent cinema since the 1980s, challenging conventions through her unwavering and unique vision. The BFI Southbank is currently running a retrospective of her work, in light of which Menkes sits down to chat with critic and lecturer Dr Julia Wagner. Menkes discusses her latest documentary, Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power; the significance of being a child of parents who fled the Holocaust; and the visual and aural style of her films.

  2. 01/30/2023

    In conversation: Alexandra Damiani

    If you love Leonard Cohen and dance, here's an irresistible offering. Dance Me: Music by Leonard Cohen – presented by Ballets Jazz Montréal (based, as the name suggests, in Cohen’s home city) – sets the bard's rich and profound work to movement, video and more. The company has already toured the world and now it’s London’s turn to thrill to their glorious and moving interpretation, which was actually approved by the man himself when it was first conceived by then artistic director Louis Robitaille. In a revealing chat with Cohen devotee Judi Herman, Alexandra Damiani, current artistic director of BJM, spoke about the show, the ideas behind it and Damiani’s own career.

  3. 05/18/2022

    In conversation: Ben Brown

    The year is 1945 and playrwight Ben Brown takes us to the estate near Berlin, where Heinrich Himmler, architect of the Holocaust, meets in secret with a Swedish Jew and member of the World Jewish Congress, Norbert Masur. The meeting is at the instigation of the estate’s owmer, Himmler’s Finnish physiotherapist Dr Felix Kersten, who has persuaded Hitler’s deputy to come without the Führer’s knowledge, to bargain for his life as it becomes clear that Germany is losing the war. The stakes are high, the freeing of thousands of Jews from camps is the bargaining chip, and the 'night' whose end is in sight in Brown’s tense, eye-opening drama is World War II and the Holocaust. Listen as Judi Herman speaks to Brown about his vital source material – both Kersten’s memoirs and Masur’s account written immediately on his return to Stockholm – and his fascination with vividly reimagining vital moments in 20th-century history.

  4. 11/18/2021

    In conversation: Josephine Burton

    This year marks the 80th anniversary of the massacre of more than 33,000 Jews by Nazi occupying forces in the ravine of Babyn Yar in the suburbs of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. The figures rose to more than 100,000 over the following two years of Nazi occupation. Songs for Babyn Yar marks this anniversary with a performance featuring three Ukrainian musicians – Yuriy Gurzhy, Svetlana Kundish and Mariana Sadovska – who have composed and arranged the music. Drawing on diverse voices, including survivors’ testimonies, traditional Yiddish and Ukrainian folk songs and poetry, they journey deep into 100 years of their country’s history to reveal forgotten stories and silenced songs. It is a new act of remembrance that also asks how to move forward from a tragedy that has never been fully commemorated. After a performance at JW3 on Sunday 21 November, it will tour to Ukraine and there are plans for further UK performances. Songs for Babyn Yar is directed by Josephine Burton, artistic director of Dash Arts, who spoke to JR’s arts editor Judi Herman about the story of the production and how it tells a powerful story.

  5. 11/11/2021

    In conversation: Peter Tate

    Many of us have seen The Merchant of Venice, perhaps Shakespeare’s most controversial play, featuring Shylock, the reviled Jewish moneylender. But now, theatre director Bill Alexander, who has directed the play several times to much acclaim, has created this “all-new modern-day adaptation”, set in what he calls the "blackly comic world of modern Venice", tellingly entitled A Merchant of Venice – did you spot the indefinite article? In Alexander’s version which, he says, "focuses on just six key characters, their entangled loves, desires and fortunes", Peter Tate plays Shylock. He is also co-artistic director (with Anthony Biggs) of The Playground Theatre in west London. He spoke to JR’s arts editor Judi Herman about the loves, desires and fortunes of Shylock, and the joys and challenges of running one of London’s newest theatres, which is currently welcoming Shakespeare In Italy, the company behind the production, with its brief to take the works of Shakespeare to new audiences in exciting and interesting ways.

  6. 10/27/2021

    Little Amal is welcomed to London

    “It was heart-stopping! It’s hard to remember she’s a puppet, she is so real and lifelike" © David Levene © David Levene © David Levene © David Levene © David Levene © David Levene © David Levene Since she set off in July, JR has been following the extraordinary journey across Europe of Little Amal, the giant puppet of a nine-year-old refugee girl. She is searching for her mother and, on the way, highlighting the plight of her fellow refugees. JR’s Judi Herman spoke to the theatremaker behind the project, David Lan in the Summer 2021 issue of JR, and has been looking forward to Little Amal’s arrival in the UK ever since. Last weekend she joined the crowds thronging the steps of St Paul’s, along with leaders of different faith communities, to welcome Little Amal to the capital, listen to the band and speak to members of the crowd, including Rabbi Laura Ja

  7. 09/30/2021

    In conversation: Rebecca Taichman

    Rebecca Taichman won the Tony Award for best director for her production of Paula Vogel’s hit play Indecent, charting the controversy surrounding Yiddish playwright Sholem Asch’s 1906 drama God of Vengeance, a story of exploitation set in a brothel that also celebrates the passionate love between two women. It caused a furore when the English translation opened on Broadway in 1923 and the company were tried for obscenity. Happily, Indecent became one of the hottest tickets in theatre and Rebecca has been in London directing the UK premiere, now selling out at the Menier Chocolate Factory, where it opened to rave reviews. Before she returned to New York, Taichman spoke to JR’s Judi Herman about her fruitful, five-year collaboration with Vogel and their shared passion for telling “the true story of a little Jewish play”.

  8. 09/22/2021

    In conversation: Alastair Falk

    Tsitsit: The Jewish Fringe Festival, aptly named after the Jewish ritual fringes, launches this October throughout the UK and online. It promises a packed month of music, theatre, comedy and family entertainment celebrating “the diversity of Jewishness” and is the brainchild of Alastair Falk, a former head teacher and co-founder of Limmud. Judi Herman caught up with him to find out about this new festival that’s really got her excited and about how he himself got the festival bug starting out with his own comedy show on the Edinburgh Fringe.

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About

JR's Arts Editor Judi Herman presents her series of podcasts, featuring interviews with leading playwrights, actors and other creatives, as well as guided audio tours of the latest exhibitions with a Jewish cultural interest.

Information

  • Creator
    Jewish Renaissance
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2023
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    ©Jewish Renaissance 2001/2017. All rights reserved. Charity number 1152871.
  • Show Website
    JR Outloud

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