‘PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC’: (left to right) Molly Ranson, Nael Nacer & Aria Shahghasemi. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

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PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
By Joshua Harmon
Through March 3, 2024
Directed by David Cromer
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com
 

By Scott Harrah

Antisemitism unfortunately became a worldwide crisis in the wake of the Israel-Gaza conflict when the terrorist group Hamas broke the ceasefire with Israel on October 7, 2023 by attacking the Jewish state in a one-day massacre that is to date the worst slaughter of Jewish people since the Holocaust. However, hatred and violence aimed at Jewish people was a problem long before Joshua Harmon wrote Prayer for the French Republic, a three-hour epic about a French Jewish family’s centuries-long battle with antisemitism. The show was first mounted Off-Broadway in 2022, nearly two years before the current Israel-Hamas war began. Now on Broadway, the play is more timely, topical and all too real—one of the best dramas in at least a decade.

The story unfolds in a Paris apartment as Marcelle Salomon Benhamou (Betsy Aidem) is chatting with Molly (Molly Ranson), a distant American cousin visiting France on a study abroad program. She tells Molly about their convoluted family tree and how the Salomon family has been in France for centuries, with a renowned piano business on Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, run by Marcelle’s octogenarian father, Pierre (Richard Masur). As a secular American, Molly feels almost no connection to her Jewish roots. Marcelle discusses the Salomon family’s Jewish roots and many tragedies—some living through the Nazi occupation of France while others had the misfortune of living in Poland and Russia and were killed in concentration camps. Marcelle and her brother Patrick (Anthony Edwards) grew up with a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. She explains that her brother Patrick is mostly secular. Although Marcelle wasn’t orthodox, she is married to Charles Benhamou, a devout Sephardic man who grew up in French Algeria in the colonial era but had to leave once Algeria gained independence in 1962 because the country was no longer safe for Jews. Marcelle is a psychiatrist and has two grown children who still live at home, including son Daniel (Aria Shahghasemi), a math teacher who proudly wears a yarmulke at all times. Daughter Elodie (Francis Benhamou) is a lost soul but has strong opinions on Zionism and her Jewish identity.

When the rest of the Benhamou family arrives home, we see that Daniel has a bloody face and has been beaten in an antisemitic attack. Marcelle feels Daniel has made himself a target and could avoid violence by simply wearing a baseball cap to cover up his yarmulke.

The story is also told via flashbacks. Although most of the play takes place in 2016/2017,  there are flashback scenes to 1944 when Patrick and Marcelle’s great-grandparents Adolphe Salomon (Daniel Oreskes) and Irma Salomon (Nancy Robinette) are living in hiding in Paris during the Nazi occupation—having miraculously eluded the Gestapo. They are running the family piano store while they wait patiently for their son and grandson to return from a concentration camp.

The play begins in 2016 when Donald Trump was running for president of the United States, and right-wing nationalist candidate Marine LePen was running for president in France one year later in 2017. The Benhamou family believes LePen may eventually become president and Jews in France will be in grave danger as a result. Much of the play deals with Charles (Nael Nacer), a successful physician with a thriving practice, and his desire to move the entire family to Israel because he believes France is no longer a safe country for Jews. Marcelle has spent her whole life in France and does not wish to leave her aging father behind, but as antisemitic incidents in Paris continue to be on the rise, she is left with a tough choice.

Although the play has some true flaws and is long and rambling in parts, playwright Joshua Harmon’s tale is always fascinating and is must-see theatre for anyone. Director David Cromer keeps the action flowing at a rapid-fire pace, but should have done some tighter editing in act three. There are some amazing performances here as the cast works together as a cohesive ensemble.  Standouts include Nael Nacer and his gripping portrayal of Charles, the husband and father who will do anything to keep his family safe and is willing to risk everything to relocate to Israel. Molly Ranson does a fine job playing the show’s most unlikeable character Molly, the naïve, misinformed American cousin who knows almost nothing about Judaism and dismisses her roots as simply being “of Jewish extraction.” Ms. Ranson isn’t afraid to portray Molly as a clueless yet gutsy twentysomething who speaks her mind, even when her comments are inappropriate. The play’s best performance is given by Francis Benhamou as Elodie, an angry misanthrope who steals the show when she tells off Molly with her vitriolic rant about “ahistorical” young people who don’t read and get all their historical information from social media.

Anyone in America—especially New York City—who has Jewish friends or family knows these are some of the darkest days Jews have experienced since World War II. Perhaps that is why Prayer for the French Republic is so sobering and truth-telling right now, at a time when the very existence of Jewish people is being maligned by misinformed media and a growing faction of bigots on college campuses and social media. This is as epic as another Jewish stage saga, Stefano Massini’s The Lehman Trilogy; and as emotionally volatile and searing as Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County. Yet it has an urgent message that most plays do not: Jewish people in 2024 are afraid and feel nowhere is safe; not France, Europe, America, Israel—or anywhere.

 

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published January 9, 2024
Reviewed at January 5, 2024 press performance.

 

‘PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC’: Betsy Aidem & Molly Ranson. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

 

‘PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC’: Molly Ranson & Francis Benhamou. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

 

‘PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC’: Aria Shahghasemi & Molly Ranson. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.

 

‘PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC’: Nancy Robinette, Daniel Oreskes, Richard Masur, Ari Brand & Ethan Haberfield. Photo: Jeremy Daniel.