UK Theatre Network

74 GEORGIA AVENUE is a curious piece of theatre that initially captures the imagination but ultimately fails due to it’s lack of dimension or resolution.

Joseph’s wife is dying in the bedroom from a terminal illness when he is unexpectedly visited by Marty, a successful but deeply unhappy business man who once lived in the same apartment as a child. By coincidence Joseph’s father had been the janitor of the synagogue which Marty attended as a child, and Joseph has kept some of the clothes of the rabbis from the once busy building. The area is no longer populated by the Jewish community and has become a black neighbourhood, but despite this both Marty and Joseph cling onto the ghosts of nostalgia. When he puts on the clothes Joseph is inhabited by the dybbuk’s of past personalities from the synagogue, and both men gain some form of consolation from this.

There have been many one act dramas which have managed to successfully tell their story and develop characters within 40 minutes but unfortunately Murray Schisgal’s is not one of them. The writing is often rambling, structurally unfocused and fails to offer any real depth to the roles. Nevertheless Nathan Clough as Joseph and Daniel Dresner as Marty manage to give decent performances, and Paul Blinkhorn’s mostly tight direction holds things together.

Depite signs of potential 74 Georgia Avenue feels like an incomplete work, and ultimately makes unsatisfying viewing.

OLIVER VALENTINE                                           Runs until March 19^th.