Critically acclaimed, award-winning writer Stephen Laughton is bringing his bittersweet comedy to the Trafalgar Studios in Spring 2020 following a sell-out premiere at Islington’s Old Red Lion Theatre.

The British playwright is best known for winning the 2019 JB Priestly Award for Writers of Promise and for being the current Writer in Residence for the Astrophysics Department at the American Museum of Natural History.

With anti-Semitism and racism rife in political parties and hate-crime at unprecedented levels, Stephen Laughton explores one family’s struggle against fear, prejudice and identity.

In this moving play, follow the relationship between Jesse (Robert Neumark Jones), a nice Jewish boy from north London, and Alex (Asha Reid), a not-so Jewish woman with whom he falls desperately in love with.

From his next-door neighbour to the political parties riddled with racism, Jesse grows more and more paranoid. Feeling the sting of rising prejudice and afraid of what’s to come, he tears apart his relationships and ruins his career. Will Jesses fear cause his whole life to crumble around him?

Written as an urgent response to overt anti-Semitism and told out of chronology, the moving play focuses on the filthy, ugly words that were forced into Jesse and asks if the fear of hatred could be worse than hate itself…

Following its controversial and sold-out run at the Old Red Lion Theatre Islington, this thought-provoking play, directed by Sarah Meadow, is poised for a successful West End transfer. It is expected to follow suit with a subject to high demand, so be sure to get your tickets. Don’t miss out on this theatrical tale of inherited trauma, the miracle of Chanukah, raging anti-Semitism, the end of youth and staying in love.