Jewish actress Hannah Benitez stars in the one-act drama “Bad Jews,” running now through Aug. 13 by Main Street Players at the Main Street Playhouse in Miami Lakes.
The story is centered on the death of a Holocaust survivor that begins a battle of wills between his two grandchildren.
Playwright Joshua Harmon debuted “Bad Jews” off Broadway in 2012 and had its South Florida debut in 2014 at GableStage to positive reviews.
Set in a Manhattan apartment following the funeral of “Poppy” (what the grandchildren called him), the drama centers around which of the two grandchildren of a Holocaust survivor will inherit the “Chai” ( a necklace with a Hebrew letter meaning life).
The “Chai”was so endearing to Poppy that he hid it under his tongue during the years he was imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration camp.
Two grandchildren who are cousins engage in a tense battle at the apartment on who is more deserving to inherit the “Chai.” Daphna (played by Benitez) feels she is the rightful heir as a self-defined observant Jew, who is planning to marry her Israeli fiance and move to Israel to become a rabbi.