Chicken Soup with Barley is an epic play that spans twenty years in the life of an East End Jewish family and the gradual crumbling of their socialist dream. It vividly captures the loss of political idealism and links the journey of a single family to the wider political situation.

The kettle boils in 1936 as the fascists are marching. Tea is brewed in 1946, with disillusion in the air at the end of the war. Twenty years on, in 1956, as rumours spread of Hungarian revolution, the cup is empty. Sarah Khan, an East End Jewish mother, is a feisty political fighter and a staunch communist. Battling against the State and her shirking husband, she desperately tries to keep her family together. This landmark state-of-the-nation play is a panoramic drama portraying the age-old battle between realism and idealism. Chicken Soup with Barley captures the collapse of an ideology alongside the disintegration of a family. Chicken Soup with Barley, the first in a trilogy that includes Roots and I'm Talking about Jerusalem was first performed at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry in 1958 and transferred to the Royal Court in the same year.

"It reminds us of Wesker's rare gift for generating strong emotion while encompassing big ideas." - The Guardian

"The play...has a deep core of humanity. Its title is a reference to a memorable, evocative flavour that remains after everything has gone - a reminder of the warm, enduring nourishment afforded by friendships." - Evening Standard

"Chicken Soup with Barley (1958) is warm, untidy, passionate and garrulous... This is a play that genuinely combines the personal and the political." - Daily Telegraph

"It has a deep vein of humanity running through it." - Financial Times

"Wesker's intimate portrait of a Jewish, East End family falling apart also has epic sweep." - Sunday Times

"What makes the play so powerful is that Wesker never uses it as a soapbox. His political intelligence is shaped by ambiguity, subtlety and his warm heart." - Kate Kellaway