The Wanderers review – faith and infidelity in Brooklyn

Marylebone theatre, London The lives of unhappy couples across two generations play out in overlapping timelines and geographies in Anna Ziegler’s uneven drama When Abe’s daughter asks him which parent she should save, if ever forced to choose, his instinct is to say himself. The bone-deep selfishness of this character, a Pulitzer-winning author who repeatedly and committedly dismisses his wife for the fleeting fancy of an emotional affair, overwhelms Anna Ziegler’s drama, which played off-Broadway in 2023. Concerned with inheritance and the way we fictionalise our lives, The Wanderers circles two unhappy couples in Brooklyn. The angsty, escapist Abe (Alexander Forsyth) and his frustrated wife, Sophie (Paksie Vernon), are secular. Abe’s father Schmuli (Eddie Toll) revels in the rituals and rules of Hassidic Jewish life, while Abe’s mother, Esther (Katerina Tannenbaum, radiant), is desperate to break free.