Anna Ziegler’s play The Wanderers makes its UK debut at the Marylebone Theatre after becoming an off-Broadway hit in 2023, starring Katie Holmes. Tracking the lives and loves of two Jewish couples from different generations in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, it is a crafty, gradually intensifying drama that examines the values we embrace and reject. Directed here by Igor Golyak, it’s staged on two sides of a translucent screen, with the tensions from the separate eras overlapping and reverberating across time.
Abe (a wonderfully weary Alex Forsyth) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning prodigy who has known his wife, Sarah (Paksie Vernon) – a less successful writer – practically his whole life. At one of his book readings, he spots the movie star Julia Cheever (Anna Popplewell) in the audience and so begins a lustful email exchange, which sends Abe on a downward spiral; he questions the roots of his marriage, declares his love for Julia, and descends further into his own world.
Elsewhere, in the novel Abe is trying to piece together about his family history, his parents Esther (Katerina Tannenbaum) and Schmuli (Eddie Toll) are Hasidic Jews. They’ve met only once before their arranged marriage and are about to embark on a life together. But, with Esther’s desire to push the boundaries of tradition, it’s not long before their union is in tatters.
In the hands of Golyak, the play glows in its duality. Using white marker pen, the actors draw out objects, like radios, that are used separately in both eras. Abe watches as the differences between his parents stretch out as space within the marriage over the years. Almost magically, Esther appears from underneath a sheet as Abe starts writing; his creative hand practically pulls her on to the stage. All of it has an air of enchantment.
The characters create their own worlds of fiction to deal with their individual uncertainties. And while this has great potential for drama, the narrative is somewhat wandering (excuse the pun). There are one too many scenes devoted to Abe’s digital correspondence with Julia, so his real-life marriage is pushed to the sidelines. Aside from an initially gripping early monologue from Sophie – brilliantly performed by Vernon – that foreshadows her later marital breakdown, there’s little to make her feel like a fully realised person. The details of her writing are skirted over, while her mixed-race heritage is touched on but not dug into. The subplot with Abe’s parents is truly fascinating and could use more space to grow, too.
It’s a pity, as these are some of the script’s richest features. Still, the universal question of whether the decisions we make are truly the right ones makes Ziegler’s play a thoughtful study of human desire and regret. With strong performances – especially from Popplewell as the glamorous Julia – it is brimming with ideas that reward reflection.
