The Wanderers at Marylebone Theatre review: a deft study of Jewish identity in America

Her name is Julia Cheever, surely a splicing of Julia Roberts and John Cheever, the perfect goyish composite to lure a Jewish writer’s truant heart. In the 2022 production at New York’s Roundabout Theater she was played by Katie Holmes. Here, Anna Popplewell is a glossy, ethereal vision, well realised even though Abe only encounters Julia though his screen and in a fantasy balloon flight inspired by Winnie the Pooh. AA Milne’s guileless bear is one of the touchstones of the story, as is the aforementioned Philip Roth, who haunts the text as an inspiration and an alternative father for Abe.