Iris Bahr is bringing her seventh solo show to Los Angeles this month — and she wants you to “schlep to the East Side” for an entertaining evening.
“Stories From the Brink,” which plays March 21 and 22 at The Lyric Hyperion Theatre, is a fast-paced, character-driven, 55-minute journey through Bahr’s life as a secular Israeli kid from the Bronx, a reluctant yeshiva student, an IDF soldier, a “Curb Your Enthusiasm” guest star, and now a caregiver navigating her mother’s dementia.
The show begins in Tel Aviv on Oct. 7, 2023, where Bahr was when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel. It became the moment everything changed for Bahr. As with so many Jews around the world over the last year and a half, the attacks strengthened her Jewish identity.
“I decided to kind of frame that and then put a whole show together surrounding [being in Israel on Oct. 7],” Bahr told the Journal. “Some are actual experiences, some are perceived, some are being close to death. But a big theme of the show is being Jewish as worry — as worry is love. It’s the Jewish notion of love is worry. I think that that’s a through-line that takes us through a lot of the show and my relationships.”
From there, the show unpacks chapters of Bahr’s life in a series of standalone vignettes. She shares a near-death rafting incident, childhood culture clashes, and a surreal journey through Israel’s pandemic travel bureaucracy when her mother had a stroke.
“My mom had a stroke while she was talking to me on a video chat,” Bahr said. “And the ensuing caregiving for her and all this stuff, I realized that I wanted to venture into the nonfiction kind of storytelling and long form storytelling.”
Bahr, best known through her work as Rachel Heineman on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (including the infamous sundown ski lift episode) and Perla on “Hacks” — has a long track record of original, self-written solo shows. Her earlier works like “Die Enough” and “Dai” (Hebrew for “enough”) featured fictional characters. But “Stories From the Brink” is more personal than ever.
“I always believe that first and foremost, an honest one-person show should be entertaining,” Bahr said. “This is not a therapy session for me. It could be a therapy session for other people — but it’s not.”
But audience reactions suggest the show really taps into some powerful emotions.
“I think of live theater as the basis of a communal experience which can be very healing and therapeutic — besides just the laughter.”
“There’s not a single show where people don’t run up to me crying and hugging me needing a hug from me. They say, ‘thank you so much for doing this’ and ‘this is exactly what I’m going through and it feels so isolating.’ I think of live theater as the basis of a communal experience which can be very healing and therapeutic —besides just the laughter.”
The show covers a lot in under an hour. Bahr moves through stories about being mocked in Israeli middle school for her American accent, and her shifting sense of home and identity between New York, Los Angeles, and Tel Aviv.
“I always felt like an alien, an outsider,” Bahr said. “At the yeshiva, I felt like I was living a double life. Everyone else was Orthodox. And my dad was eating bacon and dragging me to the Guggenheim on Saturdays.”
The show also confronts the exhaustion of caregiving for her mother in Israel.
“My mom is convinced that she’s currently in New Jersey, and I don’t know why,” she said. “I’m killing myself to pay for a nursing home overlooking the Mediterranean, and my mom thinks she’s in Newark.”
But humor is present in every story, even the dark ones.
“I find the humor even in the darkest situations,” Bahr said. “There’s just got to be a lot of fun adventure.”
Bahr has spent decades toggling between acting, writing, directing, and stand-up. She created and starred in the improvised series “Svetlana,” executive produced by Mark Cuban, and has performed in dozens of TV shows including “Elementary” and “The Brink.” She’s also the author of “Dork Whore,” “Machu My Picchu,” and co-wrote “The Book of Leon” with “Curb Your Enthusiasm’s” JB Smoove.
Offstage, Bahr has been vocal about Jewish identity, especially in the wake of rising antisemitism. She recently organized the first-ever Jewish Heritage Day at her son’s public school and makes a point to wear her Magen David in public.
“I like wearing my Magen David and I wear it even when I’m on the train,” Bahr said.
Bahr hopes Los Angeles audiences join her for a fun evening of live theater — and is specifically calling for people on the west side to go on a slight road trip this weekend.
“I know that sometimes people don’t like to schlep or everything feels like a schlep to schlep out to the east side,” she said.
“Stories from the Brink” is a sharp and deeply-relatable 55-minute respite from the stressors of the week. Bahr puts on the kind of show that makes trek across town absolutely worth your time.
“Stories From the Brink” will be performed March 21 and 22 at The Lyric Hyperion Theatre in Los Angeles. For tickets visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stories-from-the-brink-jan-dates-rescheduled-to-march-tickets-1042498570287?aff=oddtdtcreator
For more information on Bahr, visit www.irisbahr.com or follow @iris.bahr on Instagram.
