Rochester Fringe Festival 2025
Circumscribed: A True Tall Tale of One Father, Two Sons, and Thousands of Foreskins
Noam Osband
Venue: ROC Cinema
Festival: Rochester Fringe Festival
Low Down
True to life, hilarious, and sincere, this story of a son’s relationship with his father through the lens of Jewish traditional faith is engaging from the first word to the last.
Review
Noam Osband presented a one-man show, Circumscribed: A True Tall Tale of One Father, Two Sons, and Thousands of Foreskins at the ROC Cinema in this real life account of one man’s relationship with his father through the lens of Jewish tradition, ceremony, and faith.
From the first word to the last, Noam captured and held his audience with ease, addressing us directly and casually as he began to weave a picture of his life growing up. We quickly learn that his father was a Jewish ritual circumciser, who not only performed circumcisions on Noam and his brother, but seemingly every neighborhood kid they knew – making the story immediately unique and certainly engaging. With humor and clarity, he taught us different Jewish holidays and their significance, terms and their meanings, and guidelines by which Noam’s life was defined within the traditional Jewish faith, while talking about puberty, school awkwardness, and rebellion as a teen. Noam’s father was also an oncologist by profession, and as someone who dealt with death and mortality on a daily basis, he was known for saying, “Every life is a beautiful song… long or short doesn’t make it any less beautiful.”
Accompanying his story-telling, Noam used pictures from childhood – his father holding him and his brother on his lap in their yard as young children and a middle school Noam proudly displaying “69” on a basketball jersey among others, letters, emails, and even a video recording of his own infant circumcision. They weren’t necessary for the story to be told well, but the grainy photographs, warbled audio recording, and other visual aids only served to reinforce the texture and reality of a complex and compelling life and relationship between father and son.
Ridiculous turns of phrases like “virginal syphilis,” laugh-out-loud anecdotes about Noam joking to teachers about worshipping Satan, and pieces of advice like “The secular world is like a tuchus – it’s nice, you want to touch it… but it’s full of shit” riddled Noam’s tale, and what emerged was a beautifully balanced exploration. There were ruminations on his father’s discipline and concern for his growing son, Noam’s wonder in growing into a man steeped in his family’s tradition, and nuanced observations on the unique relationship Noam shared with his father and how it’s currently influencing his relationship with his own growing son.
With a deft approach to hilarity, absurdity, sentiment, and reflection on his past, the overall effect of the performance was a heartfelt and sincere one from beginning to end. Circumscribed managed to be a moving performance, not in spite of but because of the humor and tension it caused paired with doubt, confusion, and faith. Ultimately, the show was an inspiring love letter from Noam to his father.
