Chopped Liver and Unions make its U.S. debut at 59E59 Theaters as part of their Brits off-Broadway Festival. Originally performed at Edinburgh Fringe, Chopped Liver and Unions explores the work and personal life of Alice Wesker, an organizer of union strikes in London from 1926 to 1930. The performance is as educational as it is entertaining, using the solo performance medium to share the story of a valuable and oft-unmentioned figure in 20th-century English history.
The play is written by J.J. Leppink and stars Lottie Walker as Wesker. One could even call it a musical, seeing as Walker leads the audience in several union songs, as the real-life Sara Wesker did to rally the workers gathered on strike and raise money to sustain the strike. Walker knows her way around an audience, and her ease and intimacy with the audience are earned quickly, along with several laughs. There's a lot of ground to cover in this show, from women's rights to the fight against fascism, and Walker toes the line between the humor and the gravity of the situation well.
The writing structure leaves something to be desired. Leppink's writing did not include too much information, as is a common pitfall of this genre, but instead did not develop existing interactions to their full potential. In an early scene, Wesker explains that she would have difficulty winning over an older, more conservative Yiddish woman to participate in a strike but that if she succeeded, she knew the whole female workforce would follow. Instead of showing this pursuit in which Wesker attempts to sway her, which would show us an unseen side of Wesker's character, Leppink cuts to the strike, where the woman shows her support. There may be resistance to imagining too much about an actual historical figure, which is reasonable. However, the throughline of her character would be more enlivened by exploring those early events of her political life.
That said, there is no dearth of Sara Wesker's opinions in this show. In fact, the performance functioned mainly as a manifesto for her, beginning with a thesis on equal pay, developing into a takedown of the class structure, and landing, of course, with Wekser serving in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Wesker makes clear and remains faithful to the power of the people over the ruling class, whether it's female workers demanding equal pay to men, the fight for the right to vote for all women, or the right of the people to protest freely, at their will, any unjust action, policy, or treatment.
Chopped Liver and Unions shines a fascinating light on an unspoken yet significant name in Western history. Theatre is often a place where audiences and artists alike can confront the troubles we face in the world, a place where the individual is reminded of their power and called to action to bring about the better world of our fantasy—Chopped Liver and Unions is one of those shows that does just that!
"Chopped Liver and Unions"
Written by J.J. Leppink
Directed by Laura Killeen
Performed by Lottie Walker
May 22 - June 07, 2024
59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, NYC)
Rita Frances Welch is… Wait, who’s asking? There are a few answers depending on the context. Rita is A) A New York playwright, actor, and director, B) The owner of 5 discrete copies of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, C) A force of nature, controlled by the tides and called to by the wind, disappearing and returning like the seasons. More material than their author, Rita’s plays have been produced by The Tank, Theatre X, Playwrights Performance, and Rogue Theatre Festival. They hold a B.F.A. in Acting from Shenandoah Conservatory, during which they studied under LAByrinth Theater’s Martha Wollner and Padraic Lillis. Rita’s writing functions as an experiment- a combination of characters in the petri dish of their world, their personal challenges and delusions in a vacuum, isolating for every variable but one: Human nature, which reveals itself every time. ritafranceswelch.com