Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company – Wendy Wasserstein’s The Sisters Rosensweig

by Paula Citron.
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The Sisters Rosensweig
Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company
Written by Wendy Wasserstein
Directed by Jim Warren
Starring Rosemary Dunsmore, Linda Kash, Sarah Dodd, Richard Greenblatt, Steve Cumyn, Sara Farb, Andrew Craig and Michael Hanrahan
Jane Mallett Theatre
In Toronto on Thursday
Rating: ** 1/2
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In 1992 The Sisters Rosensweig seemed smart and sophisticated. In the current remount by the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, American icon Wendy Wasserstein’s portrait of three sisters wavers between sitcom and soap opera. The play isn’t helped by director Jim Warren’s uneven production.

As a playwright, Wasserstein’s focus was American Jewish women going through an identity crisis. The three Rosensweig sisters have gathered in London for the birthday of the eldest, along with a daughter and various swains. The individual angst-filled journeys and tortured relationships are set against a bigger picture that includes the break-up of the Soviet Union, recession, menopause, the AIDS crisis, and Jewish assimilation.

Wasserstein’s ironic humour can still generate loads of laughs, but the passing years have rendered the play more shallow. On a superficial level, The Sisters Rosensweig is entertaining, but it is a production of hits and misses.

The Sisters Rosensweig continues at the Jane Mallett Theatre until Jun. 22.