Review: Max Olesker: Making the Cut (Soho Theatre)

Review by Justin Williams

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Just how far would you be prepared to go for love? It’s a question that has inspired countless plays, films and novels, but in Max Olesker’s Making the Cut, the answer involves an extraordinary journey through Orthodox Jewish law, religious bureaucracy, family expectations and an eventual appointment with a scalpel. Following a critically acclaimed, sold-out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this autobiographical one-man show has arrived at Soho Theatre, where its popularity has already secured an extended run into January 2027, and having experienced this wonderfully entertaining hour of storytelling, it’s not difficult to understand why.

Adapted from Olesker’s memoir Making the Cut: An Unorthodox Love Story and directed by Tom Parry, this is 60 minutes of gripping storytelling, delivered with invigorating energy and enthusiasm, and punctuated by a carefully placed, wonderfully cinematic soundscape that gives the whole experience the quality of a visual audiobook. It is a story about the extraordinary things people will do for their religion, but perhaps more significantly, what they are prepared to put themselves through for the people they love, with all the emotional complications, frustrations and unexpected hilarity that such devotion can bring.

The story begins at 2am in an Edinburgh bar, where Max meets Eliana, a modern Orthodox Jewish woman with whom he immediately forms a connection, although their blossoming romance encounters a rather substantial obstacle when he discovers that, despite having been raised Jewish, he is not recognised as Jewish under the religious laws governing her community. What follows is an increasingly extraordinary journey through the complexities of Orthodox Jewish conversion, where love, identity and religious expectations collide in ways that are frequently hilarious, occasionally bewildering and ultimately rather moving, although to reveal much more would spoil the pleasure of discovering just how far this remarkable true story takes us.

The writing itself is raw yet polished, personal without becoming self-indulgent, and frequently hilarious without losing sight of the emotional stakes involved, with Olesker displaying a wonderful ability to find humour in the contradictions and complications of his circumstances whilst allowing a genuinely touching examination of identity, belonging and the extraordinary compromises we sometimes make for love to emerge beneath the laughter. There is something particularly compelling about watching someone whose understanding of his own identity is suddenly challenged by a set of religious expectations, and whilst the audience may question whether they would ever agree to such demands themselves, Olesker tells his story with such warmth and honesty that we remain completely invested in his journey.

Olesker, best known as one half of the comedy partnership Max & Ivan, proves himself to be a wonderfully engaging performer whose background in character-driven comedy serves him exceptionally well, particularly in the effortless way he moves between the many individuals who populate his story. With little more than a shift in posture, a change of voice or a carefully observed mannerism, he conjures an entire collection of characters, each sufficiently distinct to make us feel as though we have encountered them ourselves, whilst his infectious enthusiasm and impressive command of pace and tone allow him to move between moments of absurd comedy and genuine emotional vulnerability without either feeling contrived. The audience was completely wrapped around his little finger, laughing one moment, tearing up the next and frequently marvelling at the range of a performance that makes such demanding storytelling appear almost effortless.

What makes this production particularly satisfying is just how much it achieves with so little, as the beautifully simple staging, consisting of a table, a cloth and two chairs, provides little more than a framework upon which the richness of Olesker’s writing and the variety of his characterisations allow us to paint our own vivid pictures. Family dynamics, awkward religious encounters and the seemingly endless red tape of Orthodox Jewish requirements are brought to life without elaborate scenery or theatrical trickery, allowing our imaginations to do much of the work and reminding us how effectively theatre can transport an audience when the storytelling is strong enough to stand on its own.

The upstairs space at Soho Theatre does present its challenges, with some audience members afforded a frankly awful view of the action, although Tom Parry’s considered direction works impressively hard to address these limitations through moments in which Olesker deliberately redirects his performance towards the more awkwardly positioned sections of the audience. These moments of considered audience address feel entirely natural within the performance, ensuring that those who might otherwise feel excluded are actively drawn into the storytelling, whilst demonstrating an intelligent awareness of the space and a determination to make this intimate experience as inclusive as possible. Combined with the carefully placed soundscape, which enriches the storytelling without ever overwhelming the performer at its centre, the result is a production that makes excellent use of its limited theatrical resources.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of Making the Cut is the intimacy it creates between performer and audience, because despite the deeply personal nature of the material, we never feel as though we are simply listening to somebody recounting their experiences, but rather that we have been invited into Olesker’s world, sharing his bewilderment, frustration, excitement and vulnerability as we become increasingly invested in a story whose outcome we are desperate to discover. It is this connection that allows the more emotional moments to land so effectively, particularly when the laughter gives way to something more reflective and we find ourselves considering what we might be prepared to sacrifice for the person we love.

This is the cream of the kind of work you occasionally have the privilege of discovering at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where a compelling story, an exceptionally talented performer and a handful of theatrical ingredients combine to create something genuinely special, and its transfer to London is thoroughly deserved. It arrives with all the freshness, intimacy and inventiveness that make those unexpected Fringe discoveries so exciting, proving that an hour of theatre need not be filled with elaborate spectacle or complicated staging to leave a lasting impression.

Raw yet polished, short yet perfectly long enough, Making the Cut is a funny, moving and wonderfully human piece of theatre that leaves us questioning just how far we ourselves might be prepared to go for love. We laughed, we teared up and we marvelled at Max Olesker’s performance, and whilst its staging may be modest, the impact of its storytelling is anything but, making this a particularly satisfying example of what can be achieved when an exceptional performer is given the space to share an extraordinary story. An hour of your life will undoubtedly be all the richer for Max Olesker sharing a little of his with you, and this is one Fringe success that London audiences really shouldn’t miss.

Making the Cut plays at Soho Theatre Upstairs until 9 January 2027. Tickets from https://sohotheatre.com/events/max-olesker-making-the-cut/

Photos by Jonny Ruff