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The Lost Priest

 
Richard Beck Review by Richard Beck 3 Published: 13 Aug 2025 theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall Show Dates: 1 Aug 2025-23 Aug 2025

Chicago-based Orchard Theatre Company makes its Fringe debut with an intense exploration of ethnic and religious identity in The Lost Priest at theSpace Surgeons' Hall. The show is jointly directed by Julia Grace Kelley and Gabe Seplow, who also serves as the writer and performer of this solo journey.

A tormented, anguished performance through fragmented reflections.

Gabe approaches the table and lights the Shabbat candle. "Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik ner shel Shabbat." They speak the language, were brought up in the tradition, though somehow managed to talk their way out of their bar mitzvah. The questioning emerged even when they were a child, and as the years passed, it became more critical, more central to their existence, and more profound. They became increasingly aware of the complex situations in which Jews have existed throughout history—beneficiaries of the sympathy that followed the Holocaust, who now have leaders in a land where their ancestors once lived, leading a genocidal Zionist state.

Seplow gives a tormented, anguished performance through fragmented reflections, grappling with familial history, the weight of antisemitism, the search for meaning in religious rituals that once felt familiar, and a conflicted relationship with their heritage. Yet there is humour within all that soul-searching. As such, the play becomes an agonised meditation on the complexities of identity and the longing for connection.

Though not officially a work in progress, it is, like so many Fringe shows, a piece with considerable potential for further development, yet one that is already a rewarding drama.

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The Blurb:

The Lost Priest is a deeply personal, one-person show exploring the complexities of growing up Jewish in America. Through poetic monologues, ritual reenactments and moments of raw reflection, the performer grapples with identity within an ethnicity divorced from religion. Blending humour and heartbreak, the play delves into themes of cultural alienation, family legacy and resilience. Intimate childhood memories, historical anecdotes and societal observations intertwine, creating a poignant narrative that captures the universal search for belonging.