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Two Thousand Years
Follows a fractious Jewish family in contemporary London.
About the Author
Born in Salford, Manchester, in 1943, Mike Leigh has developed a unique method of creating films through controlled improvisations. After his debut Bleak Moments (1971) he made a succession of admired TV plays, including Abigail's Party and Nuts in May. He then returned to feature films: High Hopes (1988), Life is Sweet (1990), Naked (1993). Secrets and Lies won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1996. Topsy-Turvy (1999) won two Oscars. All or Nothing followed in 2002. Since then he has made the Oscar-nominated Vera Drake (2004), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) and Another Year (2010). He also did Two Thousand Years for the National Theatre in 2005.
About the Author
Born in Salford, Manchester, in 1943, Mike Leigh has developed a unique method of creating films through controlled improvisations. After his debut Bleak Moments (1971) he made a succession of admired TV plays, including Abigail's Party and Nuts in May. He then returned to feature films: High Hopes (1988), Life is Sweet (1990), Naked (1993). Secrets and Lies won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1996. Topsy-Turvy (1999) won two Oscars. All or Nothing followed in 2002. Since then he has made the Oscar-nominated Vera Drake (2004), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) and Another Year (2010). He also did Two Thousand Years for the National Theatre in 2005.
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 22, 2023
3.5, rounded up.
I've long been an admirer of Leigh's work in film, but I believe this is the first stage play of his I've read. It's kind of an odd duck, and not everything works (this may be due to Leigh's famous method of improvising his scripts with his actors) - it's ostensibly about a modern UK secular Jewish family who all go berserk when the young son suddenly and inexplicably takes up Orthodoxy (why? who knows?). But that's one of many threads, some of which lead nowhere, and few of which reach a satisfactory conclusion. The ending, with the arrival of wayward aunt Michelle, who has been 'missing' for twenty years, is also somewhat confusing - and she's such a odious character, she'd maybe have been better left offstage.
Despite these shortcomings, and a tendency to have scenes devolve into shouting matches, I DID find the play to be involving, at times riveting, and I'm sure Leigh's initial production at the National crackled, as reviews indicate. I still don't really get the meaning of the title (yes, since the play takes place in 2004 - which unfortunately dates it badly - it obvs. refers to the time since Christ's death - but that really isn't addressed IN the play). And it took me an inordinately long time to figure out the pun in Danny's final joke! :-( Still kudos for the script providing a glossary of the Yiddish/Hebrew terms used, so that one can navigate the dialogues easier.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/200...
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/th...
I've long been an admirer of Leigh's work in film, but I believe this is the first stage play of his I've read. It's kind of an odd duck, and not everything works (this may be due to Leigh's famous method of improvising his scripts with his actors) - it's ostensibly about a modern UK secular Jewish family who all go berserk when the young son suddenly and inexplicably takes up Orthodoxy (why? who knows?). But that's one of many threads, some of which lead nowhere, and few of which reach a satisfactory conclusion. The ending, with the arrival of wayward aunt Michelle, who has been 'missing' for twenty years, is also somewhat confusing - and she's such a odious character, she'd maybe have been better left offstage.
Despite these shortcomings, and a tendency to have scenes devolve into shouting matches, I DID find the play to be involving, at times riveting, and I'm sure Leigh's initial production at the National crackled, as reviews indicate. I still don't really get the meaning of the title (yes, since the play takes place in 2004 - which unfortunately dates it badly - it obvs. refers to the time since Christ's death - but that really isn't addressed IN the play). And it took me an inordinately long time to figure out the pun in Danny's final joke! :-( Still kudos for the script providing a glossary of the Yiddish/Hebrew terms used, so that one can navigate the dialogues easier.
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/200...
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/th...
May 28, 2020
I found reading this play pleasantly different experience than a book. Maybe because each act and scene has an introduction to the stage and it’s effects.
The story is about the Middle East and Israel and Tye politics around the place. I found the characters very interesting and thought the play was well written.
I was introduced to words in Hebrew and Spanish which were very nicely woven in the conversations.
Shankar
The story is about the Middle East and Israel and Tye politics around the place. I found the characters very interesting and thought the play was well written.
I was introduced to words in Hebrew and Spanish which were very nicely woven in the conversations.
Shankar
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January 15, 2024Well, having grown bored with my daily "Mike Leigh new film when" google searches, i came up with a brilliant idea: why not seek out and read his theatre scripts!?
This seemed like a good one to start with as it concerns itself with family dynamics/conflict (love leigh for this) and discussions around Israel/Palestine.
As always with Leigh's work, I blasted through this with no concept of time; they go down so smoothly for me (which is odd because I have a highly distractable bird brain).
There are lots of his scripts that seem to never have been published. So if anyone can hook me up with the raerest Mike Leighs, I would be grateful. Cheers.
Oh, Also there was a post-it note on page 29 of this library book that read "this play is shit". lol
This seemed like a good one to start with as it concerns itself with family dynamics/conflict (love leigh for this) and discussions around Israel/Palestine.
As always with Leigh's work, I blasted through this with no concept of time; they go down so smoothly for me (which is odd because I have a highly distractable bird brain).
There are lots of his scripts that seem to never have been published. So if anyone can hook me up with the raerest Mike Leighs, I would be grateful. Cheers.
Oh, Also there was a post-it note on page 29 of this library book that read "this play is shit". lol
January 22, 2025
Tzachi: ‘You always do this, you take what you like, you throw away what you don’t like – you’re not dealing in reality, you’re being idealistic.’
Two Thousand Years is another play that’s been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time waiting to be read. Whilst it is now 18 years old and set 20 years ago, the play may initially feel a little dated through its contextual / historical references, but is still also very timely and relevant. Considering the old adage - how much things change, they stay the same - there are numerous aspects dealing with family dynamics. politics and religion are timeless / universal concerns.
Whilst another comments noted the play does not offer many resolutions, I felt the play was consistent with Mike Leigh’s intentions of provoking questions and discussion in his audience without overly explaining or resolving anything. The script moves through a series of set pieces from domestic family relationships, into the religious and political divisions, at times being quite farcically, polemic and even violent.
One could even draw parallels between the 2006 play and his most recent film - Hard Truths.
Two Thousand Years is another play that’s been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time waiting to be read. Whilst it is now 18 years old and set 20 years ago, the play may initially feel a little dated through its contextual / historical references, but is still also very timely and relevant. Considering the old adage - how much things change, they stay the same - there are numerous aspects dealing with family dynamics. politics and religion are timeless / universal concerns.
Whilst another comments noted the play does not offer many resolutions, I felt the play was consistent with Mike Leigh’s intentions of provoking questions and discussion in his audience without overly explaining or resolving anything. The script moves through a series of set pieces from domestic family relationships, into the religious and political divisions, at times being quite farcically, polemic and even violent.
One could even draw parallels between the 2006 play and his most recent film - Hard Truths.
January 13, 2023
According to a press release I received, Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years is about "an assimilated Jewish family whose routine in quiet suburban London is upset when its layabout son begins following a devout lifestyle." Though the play starts out to explore this topic, by the second act it's mostly evaporated from even peripheral focus; the climactic scene is a confrontation between the family and a prodigal sister who returns on cue after at least a decade away (she sets off an explosion in the play in the same way that a loaded gun mentioned in Act One of a melodrama would). Though there's a certain amount of reasoned argument about secularism versus observance and faith--not to mention endless bickering throughout--the play mostly feels, in the final analysis, like an opportunity for Leigh to complain about the American and Israeli governments and how their proclivities and policies are destabilizing the world.
Even when it stays on point, though, Leigh's plotting here feels deliberately perverse. We're introduced, in a series of very short scenes, to the family: the father, Danny, a dentist; the mother, Rachel; and the grown son, Josh. Josh has no job and apparently no interest in getting one; he mopes around the house ostentatiously and rudely. No information is provided to explain why he's in such a funk or why his parents allow this (by their own account) very intelligent and well-educated adult to mooch off them.
And then out of the blue, Josh sneaks into the house one day, checks to be sure that nobody is around, turns off the lights, closes the curtains--he's so darned furtive that it feels like he's about to put a child pornography video into the VCR or something. But of course--and does Leigh mean this as the joke it feels like?--he's about to put on the vestments of his new-found faith (a yarmulke and a prayer shawl) and he's about to open a holy book and pray.
When Danny and Rachel catch him wearing what they call (in Hebrew) a kippah, they are utterly mortified. As if, to continue my metaphor, they'd caught Josh having sex with a 12-year-old. I kept wondering why: what has drawn Josh to religion? why religion and not something else? and what's so wrong with it? Perhaps it is because he found he had little to say about the issue that Leigh decides to mostly ignore it once he's raised it.
Instead, we meet Josh's very well-put-together sister Tammy, his crotchety but articulate grandfather Dave, and--in Act Two--Tammy's Israeli boyfriend Tzachi and the aforementioned and much anticipated aunt Michelle, Rachel's sister who hasn't spoken to anyone in the family in years. Sometimes these people have lucid and interesting discussions about world affairs when they get together, but mostly they fight fight fight, especially once Michelle arrives on the scene. It's impressionistic and vignette-ish, crowded with incident but not arriving at any particular point as far as I could tell. Very unsatisfying.
Even when it stays on point, though, Leigh's plotting here feels deliberately perverse. We're introduced, in a series of very short scenes, to the family: the father, Danny, a dentist; the mother, Rachel; and the grown son, Josh. Josh has no job and apparently no interest in getting one; he mopes around the house ostentatiously and rudely. No information is provided to explain why he's in such a funk or why his parents allow this (by their own account) very intelligent and well-educated adult to mooch off them.
And then out of the blue, Josh sneaks into the house one day, checks to be sure that nobody is around, turns off the lights, closes the curtains--he's so darned furtive that it feels like he's about to put a child pornography video into the VCR or something. But of course--and does Leigh mean this as the joke it feels like?--he's about to put on the vestments of his new-found faith (a yarmulke and a prayer shawl) and he's about to open a holy book and pray.
When Danny and Rachel catch him wearing what they call (in Hebrew) a kippah, they are utterly mortified. As if, to continue my metaphor, they'd caught Josh having sex with a 12-year-old. I kept wondering why: what has drawn Josh to religion? why religion and not something else? and what's so wrong with it? Perhaps it is because he found he had little to say about the issue that Leigh decides to mostly ignore it once he's raised it.
Instead, we meet Josh's very well-put-together sister Tammy, his crotchety but articulate grandfather Dave, and--in Act Two--Tammy's Israeli boyfriend Tzachi and the aforementioned and much anticipated aunt Michelle, Rachel's sister who hasn't spoken to anyone in the family in years. Sometimes these people have lucid and interesting discussions about world affairs when they get together, but mostly they fight fight fight, especially once Michelle arrives on the scene. It's impressionistic and vignette-ish, crowded with incident but not arriving at any particular point as far as I could tell. Very unsatisfying.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews