Berdichev/TheFamily That Never Was” is a play about the life of Soviet Jews in the wake of the Holocaust written by Friedrich Gorenstein, a Jewish writer of the Soviet era and contemporary play writer. The play "Berdichev", according to critics, is included in the treasury of world Jewish art.

Berdichev is a city in Central Ukraine where Nazi invaders, intent on genocide during the Second World War, eliminated the entire Jewish population. Following the Holocaust, Gorenstein witnessed the decline and diminishment of Jewish culture and character in Soviet society. He selected Berdichev as a symbolic Jewish town for the play, and based the characters on his own family and memories.

The play presents 30 years in the everyday life of a Jewish family after the Holocaust (1945 to 1975), as two sisters, Rachel and Golda, guide their family through hard years of poverty and strife. It is an unsentimental story about post-Holocaust Jews, separated from their culture, history and people, who nonetheless survive through laughter and tears.

• Shows in English
  When: Friday January 14 and Saturday January 22
  Time: 7:00pm – 9:30pm
• Shows in Russian
  When: Saturday January 15 and Friday January 21
  Time: 7:00pm – 9:30pm