Say what you will about playwright S. Asher Gelman, he’s willing to yank your chain. Afterglow, his frank, sexually explicit portrayal of polyamory and the difficulty of maintaining human connections, is approaching a decade’s worth of shaking up audiences through productions from London to Australia, and from NYC to LA. (It hasn’t yet reached my home town of Boston, darn it, though I wish some audacious theater company there would take it on and roil bluestocking locals.)
Now, in a world premiere shared by Miami New Drama this past April, Barrington Stage Company of Pittsfield, MA is presenting The Zionists: A Family Storm, and in this polarized historical moment perhaps only the debut of something called Trump Is So Great could be more edgily provocative. But again, Gelman is no slouch when it comes to provocation. This time he traps the wealthy, privileged Rosenbergs in a vacation resort on Thanksgiving during a freak hurricane, and sets them to hashing out not only decades of familial baggage, but years of post-October 7 reaction and centuries of anti-Semitism. Their deluxe bungalow hosts a fierce debate over the rights of Palestinians, the right of Israel to exist, and what it means to be Jewish in a world that, to a horrifying extent, wants Jews obliterated. Expect a riveted audience, and the possible need for referees instead of ushers in the lobby.
The subtitle A Family Storm is both metaphorical and literal. Kudos first and foremost to director Chloe Treat and her crackerjack designers (and their builders) for the dramatic weather events they bring to the Boyd-Quinson Stage. I can’t say I was ever aware of Turks and Caicos as a Caribbean destination, but as sumptuously recreated in Adam Koch’s set both upstage and downstage of the villa’s massive picture windows, I can readily accept that Madonna would be occupying the neighboring complex (to the jealousy of Rosenberg matriarch Ruth, played broadly by Joanna Glushak to kick things off with high comedy ire). An island paradise having been established, Treat and lighting designer Solomon Weisbard build the Category 3 with eerie inevitability, sound designers Andy Evan Cohen and Solomon Lerner gradually pulling us into the action with the irresistibility of Sensurround. (Remember Earthquake?) Put it this way: Thomas Hardy was famous for having the environment mimic the emotional plateaus of his novels. Even he would be impressed.
Between thunder cracks and power outages, the Rosenbergs engage in the catching-up chat ever associated with holiday reunions, except here it’s peppered with resentments born of personal and political dysfunction. Younger son Aaron (Coby Getzug) – a recovering addict who has always been the pampered one – has used his inheritance to set up a foundation, “Abraham’s Sons,” whose name and pro-Palestinian mission infuriate and/or perplex his relatives. Ensuring that all points of view are represented, Gelman issues traits and beliefs as ecumenically as a World War II movie about a stranded platoon: siblings and in-laws with strong ties including Israeli Defense Force service, vs. siblings and in-laws with passionate conviction that the Jewish state is traducing its Jewish ethics. There’s one pregnant Cuban-American convert (Yvette Gonzalez-Nacer), a middle child (Dani Stoller) weary of keeping the peace, one kindergarten teacher (William DeMeritt) who is outside looking in, and patriarch Mitchell (Adam Grupper) lightening the mood with quips and Werther’s. (Gelman sees to it that there’s no food at hand, so the available booze loosens tongues and inhibitions.)
If the action is crafted more with a sledgehammer than a scalpel, perhaps that was inevitable given such fraught material. Everyone gets their Big Moment – I almost said aria – where a salient point is made that momentarily silences the others. Secrets are gradually revealed like a slowly-peeling onion. Old slights are revisited, and even seemingly daffy Ruth has a professional career that son Aaron has put at risk. The cast across the board manages to avoid the sense of being mouthpieces, but I would especially call out Gedzug and Shira Alon, as an Israeli-born attorney who has served as an army medic. Their characters are the most unambiguously drawn in terms of their politics, to which each performer responds with lived, breathing authenticity.
That the playwright’s hand is generally visible throughout doesn’t take away from the sense that this is a deeply felt and deeply sincere piece of writing, reminiscent of O’Neill in the way its emotionality is given free license to overwhelm the dramaturgy. But O’Neill’s family sagas, even at their clunkiest, enthrall, and at its best moments so does The Zionists.
The Zionists: A Family Storm opened June 20, 2026, at the Boyd-Quinson Theater (Pittsfield, MA) and runs through July 3. Tickets and information: barringtonstageco.org
