The Last Night of Ballyhoo at New Jewish Theatre

Uhry sets his play in Atlanta in December 1939. "Gone with the Wind" is having its world premiere, and Hitler is invading Poland, but Atlanta's elitist German Jews are much more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the social event of the season. The conflict between social acceptability and cultural definition escalates when Brooklyn born Joe Farkas (of Eastern European heritage) is brought home to dinner at the Freitag family home. The land mines of inter-religious prejudice loom large as the family gets pulled apart and then mended together with plenty of comedy, romance and revelations along the way. As events take several unexpected turns, the characters face where they come from and are forced to deal with who they really are. The warm and delightful play delicately deals with issues of prejudice, assimilation and social and religious identity and faith.