What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank review – charged chat explores Jewish identity

Tautly dramatic … (l to r) Dorothea Myer-Bennet, Caroline Catz, Joshua Malina, Gabriel Howell and Simon Yadoo in What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/the Guardian

Nathan Englander’s short story, first published in the New Yorker in 2011, tracks four Jews in a room, bitching. The room is Debbie and Phil’s swank Florida kitchen; the other Jews are Debbie’s former schoolfriend and her husband, visiting from Israel. Debbie’s life is now secular, while Lauren became Shoshana and lives ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem with husband Mark-turned-Yerucham. The reunion swiftly turns sour.

With its nebbish bravura, Englander’s skittish story prodded the unspeakable during the Obama years. We’re in a different place now: director Patrick Marber urged Englander to write this version to reflect the crisis of Jewish identity since 7 October.