Sit and shiver
By: Steven Berkoff
Series: StageScripts; StageScripts
Publisher: Faber
Published: 2006
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] /
Number of pages: 74
Subjects: Jews; Drama; Death; Shivah (Jewish mourning custom)
Description: A Jewish family mourns a dead patriarch. The term is 'sitting Shiva' (mourning for 7 days), when friends and relatives commiserate, usually in the home of the deceased. As children, we always understood this to be 'sit and shiver', which also seemed most appropriate. While death has claimed the old man and triggered the usual inflated eulogies - 'how important a man becomes when they die' - it has also brought to the surface hidden anxieties and grievances, only exacerbated when a visitor shows up bearing strange news that threatens to tear the family apart.