Rose
Park Theatre 
London
 

MAUREEN LIPMAN is the perfect actress for Martin Sherman’s outstanding monologue. Her two-and-a-half-hour narrative is a powerfully captivating account of Rose, an 80-year old Jewish woman and her journey through some of the harrowing events of the 20th century.

Sat on a bench throughout the show, honouring the Jewish tradition of mourning for a close relative’s death (shivah), Rose’s personality, sense of humour and her remarkable life story engage the audience from the outset.

Her epic journey from a Russian Ukrainian village childhood to survival in the Warsaw ghetto, British rejection from Palestine and a financially successful if emotionally damaged married life in US with reflections on her troubled son’s life in an Israel that no longer recognises her relevance, has recurring echoes throughout.