Warmly witty, proudly self-deprecating joyful Jewish home truths
As I suspected might happen – there is no beginning to this show, Rachel is there immediately from the start. Gleefully fussing over and around the gathered crowd in the corridor leading to the auditorium, handing out question cards for people to fill in ahead of the show, directing us to put them into the (actual) chicken soup pot on stage when we’re done.
When the show does get underway, it’s without fanfare, just the traditional Jewish mother’s way to start anything: with the rules and guidance. There’s some expected housekeeping to cover, with Rachel asking if there’s anyone antisemitic in the room, she says it’s very important to double check, just in case. With her recent ghastly treatment in Edinburgh, it’s understandable.
The thing that strikes us all plainly, is the immediate effortless charm that Rachel exudes, the vibe is confident and assured, and she keeps everyone’s attention very comfortably throughout the show. The laughs don’t take long to arrive either, though it’s also clear that the gathered crowd in this packed room are a particularly suitable audience for this sort of show – there’s a lot of knowing in these laughs, including mine.
It’s also nice that despite this very Jewish audience, Rachel still takes care to explain or remind us about some of the deeper concepts and meanings as she goes through them, very helpful for anyone who might be in the room who isn’t, but also for someone only Jew-ish like me.
With the admin, and some lovely introductory material out the way, we get to the crux of this show. A lot earlier than I was expecting, Rachel announces that the rest of the show is her answering all of the questions given into the pot – yes, every single one. It’s certainly a bold gambit to hinge an entire show upon, especially under the proud claim of 100% success rate on her answers. Fitting then that she begins with a few of her favourite questions kept from previous shows.
In a move that might be uncomfortable in other shows following a similar format, Rachel singles out the authors of all of the new questions too, kindly addressing and answering them directly rather than just into the room. I soon found a strong sense of community forming, seemingly with almost no effort, just that lovely warm charisma and charm. Rachel has a few friends and acquaintances in the house tonight too, and we get to see glimpses of the depth and love of their relationships a few times which is a really lovely bonus.
We reel quite quickly through the questions, some of them getting little more than clearly often used one word answers or quips – they’re still enjoyable, but sometimes it does feel a bit rushed. I suppose if she has done this show enough to be so comfortable with it, it must be hard to find a question that is new to her. Indeed, for a few of the “bigger” or more common ones, Rachel takes the opportunity to smoothly transition into a pre-prepared extra element she can roll out instead – one of her many wonderfully witty and masterfully reworded pop songs, or a laminated A3 flash card or five to show off her cooking prowess (one beautiful and one surprising Challah) – for examples. It did make me wonder though, how many of her many potential triggers did the audience manage to pull – what else might she have had ready that we didn’t get to see?
There are a few moments where it does get a tad awkward – a lengthy song about circumcision, for example, made me verge towards regretting bringing my actual jewish mother with me; but even that was also chock full of hilarious (and hideous) lines in itself – lots of guilty-feeling belly laughs in that one. Again it’s a testament to Rachel’s fantastic stage presence that she can power through this without any slowdown. The fun is constant, the laughs are strong and keenly observed, and it’s easy to get swept into the spirit of it all. By the time we run out of questions – the metaphorical soup in the pot, the audience doesn’t want it to be over. Thankfully Rachel has planned for this too, with a lovely bonus song to give us as an encore. I laughed, I related, I cringed, I had a great time.