The League of Nathans

Ian C. Nelson is assistant director of libraries at the University of
Saskatchewan, and président de la Troupe du Jour, Regina Summer Stage.

Jason Sherman, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for
Three in the Back, Two in the Head (1995), is one of Canada’s most
celebrated contemporary playwrights. The League of Nathans, for which he
received the Chalmers Canadian Play Award, premiered at Toronto’s
Theatre Passe Muraille in 1992 and was revised for co-production with
the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre in 1996.

In this brilliant retelling of the Joseph story, three men named
Nathan, all age 33, hold a brief reunion at a synagogue in Spain.
Interspersed with the main action are flashback glimpses of the three
characters when, at 13, they had formed a “league” based on their
common name and their Jewish heritage. “What makes you a Jew, Nathan?
“Uhh is this take home exam?”

Sherman has a marvelous sense both of the kids’ natural irreverence
and of the Jewish sensibility that treats God as a wily neighbor living
up the mountain. Through the shibboleth of wit, he poses important
questions and provides answers in the form of personal stories,
religious questioning, allegory, and commentary on the political times
and fortunes of the Jewish state.

The tension that stems from a devastating act of violence just before
the interval curtain easily carries one through to the satisfying
conclusion. Not every question has been resolved. This is the kind of
play where you ask two questions and get three back.