- Bar Mitzvah Boy
"Bar Mitzvah Boy" is a
British television play, written byJack Rosenthal and originally transmitted in the "Play for Today " anthology series on BBC1. Broadcast on 14 September 1976, the 75-minute production was directed byMichael Tuchner and produced byGraeme MacDonald .Starring
Jeremy Steyn ,Kim Clifford ,Mark Herman ,Adrienne Posta ,Maria Charles andBernard Spear , the play tells the story of a youngJewish boy, Eliott Green (Steyn), in alower middle class family living in Britain of the 1970s, and the apprehensions the boy feels over his forthcoming Bar Mitzvah. Meanwhile, the family prepares for the celebration, preoccupied with therir own preparations for the b'nai mitzvah.Program notes from a Boston Jewish Film Festival screening in 2004 hail the play as "a BBC classic... this bittersweet comedy about a British boy’s upcoming Bar Mitzvah features a strong sense of time and place [and] stellar acting," while the
British Film Institute 's website describes it as "a simple tale made memorable by genius writing and sympathetic performances." [cite web|url=http://www.bjff.org/films/?id=5878|title=Boston Jewish Film Festival program notes ] [cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/tv/100/list/prog.php?id=56|title=British Film Institute 100 Greatest Television Programmes]In 1977 "Bar Mitzvah Boy" won the
British Academy Television Award for 'Best Single Play', and in 2000 it was placed 56th in a BFI poll of the100 Greatest British Television Programmes of the 20th century, voted on by industry professionals. The play is currently unavailable on DVD or VHS. [ [http://www.amazon.com amazon.com] , [http://www.amazon.co.uk amazon.co.uk] ]References
ee also
*
Bar Mitzvah Boy (musical) , a musical based on the play.
* "66", a film about a London boy whose Bar Mitzvah is upstaged by the England's1966 FIFA World Cup victory.External links
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074182/ "Bar Mitzvah Boy"] at the
Internet Movie Database
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