Shay Mace
We first caught Sam Sherman & Lila Weitzner’s autobiographical solo show kaddish (how to be a sanctuary) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last summer – exploring the dual narratives of Sam’s grandfather Saul volunteering to fight on the Eastern front in World War 2 and the throes of Sam’s own decision to undertake solidarity work in the West Bank. The piece received critical acclaim, was given a prestigious Bobby Award, and now finds its way back in Europe for performances in London and as part of Prague Fringe.
We caught up with Sam and Lila, who directs and co-created the piece, to find out about their journey since Edinburgh, and what the audience can expect as the piece arrives on a mini-European tour.
You can catch kaddish (how to be a sanctuary) at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London from the 19th – 23rd May at 7pm (60mins). Tickets are available through the Venue’s Online Box Office.
The piece will then head to Prague Fringe for performances from the 27th – 30th May at Divadlo Inspirace on various times each day (60mins). Tickets are available through the Prague Fringe Online Box Office.
Shay: Hi Sam & Lila! Your show kaddish has been on quite the journey so far, winning a prestigious Bobby Award at Edinburgh Fringe and having toured multiple venues in the United States. Tell us about what you’ve been up to since we last saw the piece, and how things have been going?
S&L: Hello! We were truly thrilled by our experience in Edinburgh. After workshopping this play for months and performing it in Lila’s apartment for friends, we were confident we had made something we love, but could not have imagined the way the piece was embraced and championed in Scotland. When we returned, we followed up with a wonderful producer — Ben Grinberg of Almanac Projects — who brought us to Philadelphia for a couple of nights in December before Sam left for the West Bank to resume protective presence work in January.
Since then, Lila has been balancing planning this tour of kaddish to Prague and to London with producing and directing two new plays in New York City and co-writing a play with a friend Matt Stoke about a petroleum hazmat clean-up technician coping with climate anxiety by building a cedar-strip canoe! Since Sam returned to the US from Palestine at the end of March, we had an incredible fundraiser show in Washington, DC where a room full of family, childhood friends, and congregants from our old synagogue packed the house. We’re putting together plans for a US tour to keep telling this story in communities that we know are hungry for conversations regarding the questions this play asks.
Shay: Since the show’s premiere, Sam you’ve been back to the West Bank – can you tell us about how it feels to have returned after performing the show, and what sort of mindset it’s put you in ahead of the show arriving back to Europe?
Sam: So, I spent three months doing sustained solidarity work this time around (versus the ten days in 2024) with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence. It gave me a chance to get to know people better and to deepen relationships across the region – it was an honor and privilege to participate and to be so generously welcomed, and hosted. That being said, everything’s gotten much worse. New illegal settlement outposts exist where there hadn’t been since the last time I was there. Any marginal distinctions that may have persisted between the Israeli military, police, and Jewish settler militias have completely collapsed. Sexual assault and outright lynchings of Palestinians have become commonplace.
Art – and protective presence as a tactic of nonviolent resistance – is obviously not enough to stop this genocide, which is so much of what kaddish itself is about. Nonetheless, the play stands as a call for people to match what they say their values are to how they act. Prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba once said, “Hope is a discipline.” We can’t rest on the laurels of what we call “progress.” We will actually have to risk something for that hope to mean anything tangible.
We must reckon with both the historical “Jewish Question” and the very current “Palestinian Question” that has brought us to this moment. That responsibility belongs to all of us – particularly those in Europe and in the US whose tax dollars are being used to enact these horrors.
Shay: Let’s turn to the show, for the uninitiated, what will be the first thing the audience sees, feels, and hears as they enter the space?
S&L: The audience will enter a space that’s fairly sparse, set-wise, with the exception of two areas both stage left and stage right; these are spaces for our protagonists, Saul and Sam. Each space has a corresponding set of props that will be scattered across the floor, at least initially. Each has a desk of their own, and a chair. Saul’s desk has a typewriter, with a glass of cognac available. Sam’s desk has a stack of books, a mug illustrated with the rail map of the Washington DC Metro system, and an itinerary relevant to his upcoming protective presence shift in the West Bank.
Separating the two areas is an abstract tree sculpture; we will be debuting a different version of this from the one used in Edinburgh thanks to our designers, Daniel Toretsky & Noah Weitzner (can’t wait for y’all to see it)! A warm wash covers the entire stage as the audience files in – they may even notice our curious Golem, casually sitting against a wall parceling through one of Sam’s books. The whole scene is meant to evoke a sense of mystery and mysticism for our audiences while they get settled into their seats.
Shay: What are you hoping the audience might take away from the experience, if anything?
S&L: We hope they feel motivated to do something beyond doomscrolling and numbing themselves. When we feel ourselves sinking into that mental space, we remember this play — and the kids Sam met in Palestine. They deserve a future full of possibility. We all do! Solidarity is all about walking that fine line between selflessness and self-interest, in a way that embraces interrelationality.
To lose ourselves to despair – a natural reaction to have in these times, certainly – but to the point of despondency and inaction, is a privilege for many of us. Nihilism can too easily become a cop out. We are here. We are alive. We need a revolution when it comes to our sense of morality, our ideals. We have no choice but to fight for the living world. How people decide to take up that fight is up to them.
Shay: With Prague Fringe now just around the corner, what are you most excited for?
S&L: Neither of us have been to Prague before – or much of Central Europe at all! So this will be a brand new experience for us in so many ways. The city holds a special place in our hearts, because we grew up with the folktale of the ‘Golem of Prague’ told to us in synagogues or was something we read about in children’s books. And, of course, the Golem has an important role in our play.
It will be great to finally be in the place where these stories are said to have occurred. We’ve also heard how community-driven the Prague Fringe artist network is, so we’re looking forward to diving in, meeting people, and seeing the amazing projects people are putting up!
Shay: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic – be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?
S&L: I think if we had to assign kaddish a beverage, it would have to be either a glass of cognac or shlivovitz; the former because it was Grandpa Saul’s go-to drink for when he would write and is featured in the play – the latter because, in all honesty, we associate it with the oldest Jewish men we know and love (lol).
You can catch kaddish (how to be a sanctuary) at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London from the 19th – 23rd May at 7pm (60mins). Tickets are available through the Venue’s Online Box Office.
The piece will then head to Prague Fringe for performances from the 27th – 30th May at Divadlo Inspirace on various times each day (60mins). Tickets are available through the Prague Fringe Online Box Office.
