The Retreat – Finborough Theatre, London

A 1996 play by Canadian writer Jason Sherman, The Retreat finally gets its European debut at the Finborough Theatre. Personal desires and professionalism collide when a producer and aspiring screenwriter meet.

The Retreat

Sometimes you need to wait to produce a play until the timing is right. The Retreat, the work of Canadian playwright Jason Sherman, has waited 27 years for its European debut. The 90s are back in again, and the political issues are still relevant. The Me Too movement adds an additional dimension to a play about screenwriting and relationships. Perhaps the timing is just right.

The Retreat is about more than just screenwriting and relationships, however. It’s also about the Canadian-Jewish diaspora, and Israeli politics. The search for faith or love or redemption. These big topics are explored through a tight cast of four. Rachel (Jill Winternitz) is a Hebrew school teacher and aspiring screenwriter. Her forthright views on politics have landed her in hot water, and she has a decision to make on her future. A week away at a writing retreat will give her the chance to reflect and to see if she can make a go of it as a writer. Her father Wolf (Jonathan Tafler), is supportive but cautious. His health failing, he wants to see his daughter settled and happy.

Meanwhile David (Max Rinehart) and Jeff (Michael Feldsher) have almost come to blows over a teen slasher script. The drawn-out and painful process of trying to tune the story with a mediocre writer has clarified for David how far he is from his dreams. Jeff is pragmatic: they’re here to deliver what the audience wants, and to pay the bills.

And wouldn’t you know it – the slightly clunky draft David holds up as proof the work he wants to do is out there is Rachel’s work. The characters’ underlying struggles and conflicts play out across the week of the writers’ retreat, with far-reaching results.

Writing About Writing

One thing about The Retreat is that I learned a lot about screenwriting. Through dialogue between David and Jeff, and Jeff and Rachel, I learned about fundamental human stories, as well as the craft of writing a film script. A plots and B plots, visual storytelling, ‘beats’. Early on, the partners discuss all stories as being either a search for love, for faith or for redemption. Throughout the rest of the play I found myself wondering which path the characters are on. And whether, at the end of the day, faith and redemption are also about a deep-seated desire for unconditional love…? One for the philosophers.

This puzzle did distract me somewhat from the aspects of the play I felt less comfortable with. You see, there’s a lot in The Retreat which plays out through the character of Rachel. There’s a chemistry between David and Rachel at first sight, which Rachel tries harder to resist than the married David. His track record of acting on his desires no matter the consequences is one of the tensions in his partnership with Jeff. Rachel becomes a sort of proxy for the conflict between them. Their conflicting advice does not improve her script. Given Me Too and the uneven power-dynamics at play, there were moments where I wished David (and to a lesser extent Jeff) would just allow Rachel to benefit from the writers’ retreat. But then I guess we wouldn’t have a story.

Having a story is one thing (an important one, per David and Jeff’s notes). Understanding why we’re being told this story is another. I wasn’t always clear on this point in The Retreat. I learned a lot: about screenwriting, about politics, about Kabballah and Jewish mysticism. About Canadian-Jewish identities, too. But I’m genuinely not sure after watching it whether there was a purpose that I didn’t spot amidst all these strands, or whether the point was that the path to love (or redemption, or faith) is not straightforward and may not be tied up nicely with a bow at the end of the story.

Cast And Creative Team

Given the relationship between David and Rachel was not always a comfortable one for me (through no fault of Winternitz and Rinehart’s acting, which if anything had a chemistry that gave the romantic plot its authenticity), perhaps it’s no surprise that the other two characters were for me the standouts. In Michael Feldsher’s case this is no small feat. The character of Jeff is written as a fairly cut-throat, not necessarily likeable guy. But Feldsher finds the light and shade, ultimately humanising him. It’s a great performance: I hope I have the opportunity to see him on stage again in future. Jonathan Tafler as Rachel’s father Wolf has the smallest part, but is excellent in every scene. Watching him in the background of an encounter between David and Rachel is a masterclass in acting. His character is fully developed, complex and relatable (even when his politics are not).

Alys Whitehead‘s design has nice period details and costumes. It does involve a lot of scene changes, but created a believable world with very few props. It pairs with excellent sound design – both strike a very nice balance between minimalist and maximalist. The projections by Adam Lenson and Cheng Keng complete the world of The Retreat by taking us into the open spaces of Calgary, and inside the pages of Rachel’s increasingly uncertain script. A great creative team all round.

This was my first trip to the Finborough Theatre. Known for producing more work by Canadian writers than any other theatre in Europe, the Finborough is also a powerhouse which punches above its weight. Furthermore it’s a pub theatre currently weathering the closure of its pub, so is one to support. As my first foray into their programming, The Retreat may have challenged me in unexpected ways but was nonetheless an ascerbic play in a promising production which I was thinking about long after I left Toronto behind for familiar London streets.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3/5

The Retreat on until 13 May 2023. Covid-safe matinees on Sundays.