Temple Theaters Presents POKER IN A HOUSE WITH WOMEN

Poker in a House with Women, directed by Amina Robinson, will perform at the Randall Theater (2020 N 13th st, Philadelphia PA) on Thursday, January 30th at 7:30pm, and Saturday, Feb. 1st at 2:00 and 7:30pm.

Isaac was a son, a brother, a husband and soon-to-be father, but his memory is not always a blessing when his mother and pregnant widow gather the family to sit traditional Jewish shiva and try to deal with the reverberations of his death. A family drama that bleeds into social and political realities, Poker in a House With Women grapples with personal vendettas and cycles of violence.

This brand new play will be in rep with the work of fellow Temple MFA Playwright Peter Chansky, Earth Logic.

Says director Robinson, "Jolie provides space for pivotal questions to be explored. Her play touches on notions of nature versus nurture through the very specific lens of a troubled Jewish family." Regarding diving into a brand-new play, Robinson says, "Working on new pieces is a brave creative playground. It feels like being the first person to put their footprints in newly fallen snow, and I love it!"

The play's title, Poker in a House with Women, is inspired by the violence and misogyny of a scene in Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire and from that starting point, this family drama asks the audience to face stark realities surrounding Jewish identity, including questions about the current war in Gaza, through one family's struggle to deal with internal trauma.

Jolie quotes Adrian Piper when speaking about her piece, "If this discussion has made you in the least degree self-conscious about your political beliefs or about your strategies for preserving them; or even faintly uncomfortable or annoyed at my having discussed them; or has raised just the slightest glimmerings of doubt about the veracity of your opinions, then I will consider this piece a roaring success."

Temple Theaters is proud to be staging the very first performance of Poker in a House with Women at the Randall Theater.

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