Cup Final Day

The play takes place on May 20, 1967 in the London home of the Winslow family. Yardena Keshet and her husband Nimrod travel from Israel to London to attend the bar mitzvah of their nephew. She is reunited with her brother Morris. The two were separated before the Second Wart War and the Holocaust and their reunion provokes a crisis. The crisis that eventually led to the Six Day War is well underway. Meanwhile, the most important sporting event of the year – the Football Association Cup Final between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea – is about to kick off.

Morris Winslow and his wife Rachel are about to celebrate the bar mitzvah of their younger son Andrew in London in May 1967. A crisis is brewing in the Middle East with Arab states threatening to annihilate Israel. Morris' sister Yardena and her husband arrive from Israel to attend the bar mitzvah. Morris and Yardena have not seen each other since 1939 when she left their home in Poland for Palestine. Morris has never told anyone what he went through during the war or how he survived. During this play, old wounds will be bared, traumas explored and we will see the effect on all of Morris' loved ones. Meanwhile, Morris' elder son Charlie is interested only in one thing --the biggest soccer game of the year -- the Cup Final. We explore the relationship between ordinary life and extraordinary events.

Alan Elsner had a long career at the top ranks of American and international journalism and a long record of Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy. As State Department and later White House correspondent for Reuters News Agency, Elsner traveled the world with Secretaries of State and on Air Force One. His sharp questioning during the Rwanda genocide forced the United States to change its policy and was later highlighted in the Hollywood movie "Hotel Rwanda." Elsner is an Israeli citizen who was a volunteer during the Yom Kippur War and served in the Israel Defense Forces during the 1982 Lebanon War. As Reuters National Correspondent, Elsner was the agency's chief writer on 9/11/2001 and through the subsequent period. Elsner is the author of three novels, two plays and two works of non-fiction. His first book, "Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America's Prisons," was hailed by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy as a "wake-up call" and welcomed by the political left and right. His first novel, "The Nazi Hunter," was described by Publishers' Weekly as "a gripping debut thriller and a compelling tale." His memoir, "Guarded by Angels" about his father's Holocaust survival in World War II, was published by Yad Vashem. He spearheaded a campaign to build a fitting memorial at the site of the Belzec extermination camp in Poland where his grandparents were murdered by the Nazis. Winner of the Knight International Journalism fellowship, Elsner spent a year in Romania in 2007 teaching journalism to students and professionals and strengthening the values of a free media. He spent six years with J Street as Vice President for Communications and Senior Advisor to the President of the organization.