Noam Osband turns an unusual family history into a Fringe performance about his father: until August 23

by David Sklar, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

(AJNews) – With a title like Circumscribed: A True Tall Tale of One Father, Two Sons, and Thousands of Foreskins, Noam Osband knows audiences may arrive expecting a certain kind of show.

What they discover is something considerably more personal.

The award-winning storyteller’s one-man show, making its Canadian premiere at the Edmonton Fringe Festival, grew out of stories about his father and the relationship Osband has continued to have with him decades after his death.

Speaking on the Chai There! podcast, Osband recalled growing up in a Modern Orthodox Jewish community outside Boston. His father was a pediatric hematologist-oncologist who also happened to be a mohel. He circumcised his sons, along with friends and other members of the community.

As a child, Osband knew his family was a little unusual. He didn’t realize quite how unusual until college, when he began telling non-Jewish friends about growing up with what his family called the “Orlah tree,” where foreskins were buried near the garage.

His father could be deeply serious, particularly about Judaism, but Osband also remembers someone who loved being silly. He anonymously produced a satirical Torah newspaper for Purim and wasn’t afraid to push boundaries despite being a respected figure in his community.

At home, he gave his children a sense that the world contained a little bit of magic.

“He had this real sense of magic about the world,” Osband said. “It was such a blessing to have had a dad who gave that to me.”

Osband was only 20 when his father died at 51 from thyroid cancer. By then, Osband already knew he would not continue living an Orthodox life, but he never had the chance to tell his father.

Becoming a parent himself changed the way he thought about their relationship. Osband now catches himself playing the same games his father played with him. He shares music with his children in much the same way his father did and has held onto some of the rituals of his childhood, even though his relationship with religion has changed.

Circumscribed began with one particularly memorable piece of that childhood: a letter his father sent him at summer camp after hearing that teenage Noam had been talking about worshipping Satan and skinny-dipping.

Osband started performing the letter as part of Mortified, a live show in which people share embarrassing childhood writings. Audiences loved it. Eventually, he realized the letter belonged to a much larger collection of stories he had been telling about his dad for years.

Those stories became his first Fringe show.

Performing it has also given Osband an unexpected way to keep getting to know his father. Audience members often approach him afterward and tell him that the show made them think about their own parents.

“I think the show is extremely universal because it’s so specific,” Osband said. “It’s actually extremely relatable.”

And despite a title involving thousands of foreskins, the thought he hopes people carry home is a simple one.

“Love,” Osband said. “It’s the last word of the show.”

“If people come away just thinking about love and the love for the people that they have and how lovely it feels to both be loved and be loving, then I’m very happy with that.”

Circumscribed runs Aug. 14–23 at Holy Trinity Anglican Church as part of the Edmonton Fringe Festival.

Click here to hear Noam Osband on the Chai There Podcast.