Mikveh @ Theatre J

Mikveh is a new Israeli play recently premiering at the Jewish Community Center's Theatre J over at 16th and Q NW. It deals with 8 women of varying ages dealing with life, community, and religion in an orthodox Jewish Mikveh, or ritual bath center. This play captures a momemnt in the lives of these women very well, showcasing the realizations they come to about themselves and their community, yet leaving larger issues very much unresolved and uncertain as trying to do so would definately lead into the trite.

While I enjoyed the play, and identified with its idealogical themes, I nevertheless felt a bit like an outsider passing judgement over a way of life I have very little standing in which to judge. At it's heart, this is a very patriarchal community, and I think the message here could be easily extended to Muslim and some Christian communities which have parallel traditions, yet the success of the play is having characters within the community come to realizations inspired by their own life stories. Presumably much of the audience in Israel and at a Jewish community center in DC will share at least some of that identification and hence some of the authenticity of those judgements. My self, not so much.