PLAY REVIEW: Memoriam ★★★

What if our most painful memories could be packaged, edited and sold for entertainment? In Memoriam, playwright Noga Flaishon explores this unsettling prospect through a near-future world in which technology allows people to experience another person’s recollections. It is a compelling premise, particularly when the memories in question belong to Holocaust survivors, but this production proves more successful at raising difficult questions than answering them.

When Rachel (Rachel Barry), an employee of the memory-sharing company Memoriam, discovers that her grandmother Rivka (Beverley Klein) is the last living Holocaust survivor in their family, she sees an opportunity to preserve an invaluable piece of history. However, her brother David (Ashley Margolis) questions the morality of turning their grandmother’s suffering into a commercial product. As corporate ambition clashes with family loyalty, the play examines who owns our stories and whether preserving the past can ever justify exploiting it.

Klein is the production’s greatest asset. Her Rivka is warm, spirited and quietly heartbreaking, conveying a lifetime of grief without allowing her character to be defined solely by trauma. Barry brings energy to Rachel’s conflicting ambitions, while Margolis provides a convincing counterpoint as her protective brother. Ben Wiggins, however, occasionally pushes Chris, Rachel’s corporate boss, towards caricature, making the play’s critique of capitalism feel somewhat heavy-handed. Jimena Larraguivel adds a valuable perspective as Becky, whose experience exposes the disturbing consequences of editing memories for public consumption.

Under Daniel Goldman’s direction, Ellie Wintour’s stark set and costume design establishes an appropriately clinical atmosphere, while Jonathan Chan’s lighting and Sarah Spencer’s sound and composition help distinguish the technological world from the emotional reality beneath it.

Ultimately, Memoriam is an ambitious, thought-provoking piece that tackles an increasingly relevant debate about technology, trauma and remembrance. Yet its competing ideas sometimes overwhelm the family drama at its heart. There is much to contemplate here, even if the emotional impact does not always match the strength of the concept.