Theater review: ‘Bad Jews’ at Stage West

It’s a myth that drama has to be relatable and its characters somewhat likeable, even in a love-to-hate-them way. Good drama should connect on some kind of emotional and/or visceral level, regardless of whether you see a reflection in that held-up mirror.

That said, while there is plenty of resonant material to connect with in Joshua Harmon’s dark comedy Bad Jews, having its area premiere opening Stage West’s 37th season, the impenetrable, steel block to any possible connection is what has to be one of the most unrelentingly awful characters in contemporary drama, a woman named Daphna, here played by Kelsey Milbourn.

Daphna is the cousin to Jonah (Matthew Grondin) and Liam (Garrett Storms), residents of a cushy Manhattan apartment that their parents, who live in the same building, purchased for them. The three 20-somethings find themselves sharing the place after the funeral of their grandfather, a Holocaust survivor affectionately called Poppy.

Jonah is the quiet type — the first few minutes of the play sets this up nicely, as he gets a bit of non-dialogue stage action — which must make it hell for him when Daphna takes aim at Liam and his latest Gentile girlfriend Melody (Alexandra Lawrence) in a screaming match that lasts for much of the play’s 100, intermission-less minutes.

It’s understandable that everyone’s on edge; coping with the death of a loved one is different for everyone, and pretty much no one moves to the next stage as soon as the funeral is over. But Daphna is mad at everyone and everything.

She’s irritated with Jonah because his rich parents bought him this place and everything he always wanted. She’s angry at Liam for claiming a family heirloom that she wants, and for not caring about his cultural identity (he’s working on a master’s degree in Japanese culture, for goodness sake).

And she’s really angry because of Melody, whom Liam met online and looks to be “the one” for him even though she’s not Jewish.

But as played by Milbourn, and this is mostly because the role is exfoliated-skin-deep, Daphna is perennially unhappy.

We don’t really know that; but given her portrayal here, there’s no way she’s not one of those people whose every utterance, either out loud or on social media, isn’t a whine, complaint or objection. Not a shred of compassion or empathy to be found.

The drama canon is filled with unhappy, mean-spirited people (Albee’s George and Martha come to mind), but there’s usually something more to them. Even in the trend of sitcom characters in the past 20 years who are essentially unhappy, self-absorbed, horribly judgmental people (think Will and Grace and Seinfeld, for starters), they have their writers’ humor to cover for their general unpleasantness.

Daphna should be interesting; she’s the character most eager to preserve tradition, to find some sense of identity. But neither playwright Harmon, director Richard Allen nor Milbourn find a way to make her anything but the screechiest, most annoying person you’ve ever met.

Liam isn’t much better, but Storms finds some humanity there. Jonah doesn’t say much throughout the play, and Grondin still makes him a character you want to know more about. Melody has the most layers, and Lawrence does a fine job of slowly revealing each of them.

Jim Covault’s scenic design of Jonah’s apartment is gorgeous in its mussed minimalism, with a hallway in which certain characters can escape the fighting on the other side of the wall.

It’s too bad that while the characters occupying it have something to say about millennials and straying from tradition and religion, all their screaming makes you want to tune out and merely hope they find happiness some day.

But right now, you don’t care what happens to any of them.

This story was originally published October 7, 2015 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Theater review: ‘Bad Jews’ at Stage West."