PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC to Open at Northlight Theatre

Northlight Theatre will continue its 2024–2025 season with Joshua Harmon’s celebrated play Prayer for the French Republic, directed by Jeremy Wechsler in a co-production with Theater Wit. Prayer for the French Republic runs April 10 – May 11, 2025, at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie. 

In 1944, a Jewish couple in Paris desperately awaits news of their missing family. More than 70 years later, the couple's great-grandchildren find themselves facing the same question as their ancestors: "Are we safe?" Following five generations of a French-Jewish family, Prayer for the French Republic is a sweeping look at history, home, and the effects of an ancient hatred. Winner of the 2022 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best New Off-Broadway Play, this celebrated work is from the author of Bad Jews and Significant Other.

“Two years ago David Cromer, a Northlight alumnus who directed the original production of Prayer for the French Republic, texted me to say I should see his production at Manhattan Theatre Club and then produce it at Northlight,” says Artistic Director BJ Jones. “I jumped on a plane and caught a full house matinee. Taking place in 2016-2017, I found it provocative, moving, thoughtful, and timely. The audience was in tears at the end, and I knew we needed to bring it to our stage. Fortunately, Jeremy Wechsler of Theatre Wit felt the same way, and his relationship with the playwright Josh Harmon gave us both the opportunity to present this important work.”

Jones continues, “What makes it special is the examination of anti-Semitism over decades and its impact on one family. The haunting question posed in the play by Pierre, the grandfather, that rings out over the years is, ‘Why do they hate us?’ And the elusive answers are a hundredfold. After the Charlie Hebdo Incident in 2015, the Prime Minister of France said, ‘If 100,000 Frenchmen of Spanish origin were to leave, I would never say that France is no longer France. But if 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a failure.’”

Jeremy Wechsler adds, "Joshua Harmon has an uncanny ability to write to the future. I’ve been working on this show since 2018 and, as a Jew in America, I am asking questions today I have never asked myself. The play's central question is simple: Am I safe here? For those of us in cultural minorities, that question is never far away. Watching Charlottesville in 2017 was a jolt—those Nazis felt closer, bolder, and more numerous than I’d ever imagined. I wondered: If I lived there, how safe would I feel? How secure is the promise of assimilation? Prayer is set in France, but its tensions hit close to the bone here in America. My anxiety hasn’t eased. Rhetoric from the current administration is chillingly reminiscent of 1940s Vichy France, with an upswing in the same racist tropes that fueled 20th-century fascism. In the U.S., far-right movements flourish—I can’t forget hearing about ‘good people on both sides’ in 2017. And I believe you only have to look at a movement’s fellow travelers to understand its core."

This production is supported in part by the Crain-Maling Foundation, Paul & Janet Gans Epner, Al Zunaman, and Tiffany and Tobi Laczkowski.

The cast includes Janet Ulrich Brooks (Marcelle Salomon), Rom Barkhordar (Charles Benhamou), Rae Gray (Elodie Benhamou), Max Stewart (Daniel Benhamou), Lawrence Grimm (Patrick Salomon), Maya Lou Hlava (Molly), Henson Keys (Pierre Salomon), Kathy Scambiatterra (Irma Salomon), Torrey Hanson (Adolphe Salomon), Alex Weisman (Lucien Salomon), and Nathan Becker (Young Pierre Salomon).

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