Jewish Melbourne playwright Dr Jack Felman has followed up his successful first play ‘Laugh Till You Cry’ with his new play, ‘Don’t teach me-I’m perfect’, which played Bondi’s Hakoah Club.

The play starts with middle-aged Allen (Allen Brostek) sitting stage left typing away at his laptop. He is composing his life story as per the advice of his psychiatrist, and is reading passages from it as he goes, and then scenes from his life are enacted. Allen is trying to make sense of his life, coming from a Holocaust background, and dealing with his cantankerous aging parents, Holocaust survivors, Mania (Lena Fishman) and Velvel Pszeszekowski (Jack Felman).

It was an enthusiastic full house at the King David room at the Hakoah Club that enjoyed the play’s opening night. The play featured a well used recipe….focusing on the carryings on of a highly neurotic Jewish family. As an example Allen’s father Velvel is always on the verge of calling his Doctor, believing that he’s going to have the heart attack that’s going to ‘take him out’.
Dr Felman’s one liners kept firing through the whole play, often leaving the audience in stitches.

In the play’s Second Act life takes a darker turn with Allen seeing his mother pass away, and then having to put his father in a nursing home. The good Doctor still keeps the laughs coming even with the rather grim subject matter.

The play’s biggest drawcard is Dr Felman’s performance. He is a naturally funny performer, and carries the show wonderfully well.

‘Don’t teach me-I’m perfect’ featured a very simple set with just Allen and his laptop on the left wing of the theatre and a large double bed centre stage.