‘Sukkot’ – A Fractured Family Comes Together Through Jewish Customs

By Alix Cohen

Patrick (Andy Robinson) lost his beloved wife. He’s Irish Catholic, she was Jewish. According to the Jewish faith, it’s time to unveil her grave stone to mark the end of the first year of mourning, a period during which the immediate family has been adjusting to loss.

In conversation with his wife’s Rabbi – oddly not for a minute looking at or talking into his phone – the widower learns timing coincides with Sukkot, a week-long harvest festival that commemorates the Israelites’ journey through the wilderness. The holiday emphasizes gratitude, hospitality, and the fragility of life.

Celebration takes place in a temporary outdoor shelter called sukkot. At loose ends, Patrick Googles Sukkot and builds a structure in the backyard. It’s large enough to accommodate two chaises, a table and chairs, a sentimental shrine to his wife and a coffee station, is open to the sky, and decorated with Christmas lights- because what’s more festive?

Patrick naively expects his three children to live there with him for the week. Asher (Jonathan Slavin), an ex-college instructor, came home to care for his mother in the last year of her Cancer. He’s sarcastic, smart, and gay. Asher has done nothing to find work since his mother’s passing. He finds his father’s sudden religious penchant unfathomable.

Flying in are Mairead (Liza Seneca), a married obstetrician overwhelmed by a new baby. She’s the practical sibling, determined to make a plan for their father going forward. And the youngest, Eden (Natalie Lander), a spoiled free spirit who, always having felt like an afterthought, shows no sense of responsibility for anything.

Over a period of the week, each mourns in his/her own way while tripping up on old grudges and priorities. Dad liberally and dramatically quotes King Lear, but until he accidentally takes too many Tramadol (an opioid analgesic) and smokes what’s left of a discarded joint, the not-very-likeable kids barely take notice of his suffering. Both he and one of the girls reveal secrets that further incite with an awkwardness due as much to play construction as to emotion.

There’s a smidgen of humor sprinkled in, but mostly the piece is comprised of dissension and (illuminating) tradition. Its intention, one surmises, is to show that ritual, heritage, and celebration can offer a path toward reconciliation and renewed connection. The program says 95 minutes. In fact, the piece runs almost two hours, easily 10-15 minutes too long. Overall, I rarely found it moving.

Acting is fine with Andy Robinson’s Patrick the strongest link and Jonathan Slavin exhibiting sangfroid timing.

Direction (Joel Zwick) gets the job done.

Set Design by Mark Mendelson is spot-on.

Photos by Carol Rosegg

Sukkot by Matthew Leavitt
Directed by Joel Zwick
59E59 Theaters