Writer and Director: Ido Raphael
Sometimes autobiographical plays are so raw, so painful, for the performer that the theatrical element is gone. In a story about losing his father to pancreatic cancer, Ido Raphael brings theatricality through mirrors and voice-overs, but a good deal of the 45 minutes is given over to self-introspection that is so profoundly personal that the play feels it should be performed in the family home rather than a theatre.
There is one part, which comes near the end, that does succeed, however. Raphael relates how he first heard of his father’s illness. On leave from the army in Israel, Raphael, in his uniform and carrying a gun, boards the bus to Tel Aviv, where his family have organised a dinner in a restaurant. The details bring us directly into the narrative, and those of us who have lost a loved one will empathise with the mundane minutiae of life that then go on to make a moment we will never forget.
So clear is the storytelling here, it’s almost as if we can feel the warmth of the father’s hand as it rests on Raphael’s back. But other moments when he argues with versions of himself in a trio of mirrors are less involving. We need to know more about Raphael if we are to understand his grief, and more about his mother and father. As the play is now, his parents are portrayed as uncomplicated beings like people in cosy fairy tales.
Ido Raphael is a likeable performer and consummate with his words, although the spoken word section at the end is, again, too self-absorbed, thus putting a nonpartisan audience at a distance. It’s clear that in creating this play, Raphael has been able to find some kind of closure to his work of mourning, but Let’s Talk Again Next Year needs to find some way to allow audiences to contemplate their own losses.
Reviewed on 7 August 2025
Camden Fringe runs until 24 August 2025
