Filmmaker returns to stage with Jewish-themed play

london (ap) | Filmmaker and playwright Mike Leigh returned to the stage for the first time in 12 years last week with a play that was shrouded in mystery but sold out its entire run to ticket buyers who didn't know its subject matter or even the title.

"Two Thousand Years," about the emotional twists and turns in the life of a liberal London Jewish family, takes up some big issues: What it means to be Jewish, what binds a family together, what Israel has become and what its future holds.

Leigh, whose movie "Vera Drake" got three Oscar nominations this year, kept nearly everything about the play secret until it previewed at London's National Theatre on Saturday, Sept. 10.

More focused on character than plot, "Two Thousand Years" follows a Jewish family through a year of ups and downs that includes a death, a reunion and the confusion that secular parents Rachel and Danny feel when their 28-year-old son, Josh, grows devout and distant.

"It's beyond me, it's unbelievable, it's like having a Muslim in the house — a Martian," Danny says when he learns Josh has started going to synagogue.

The characters spend much of their time discussing current affairs, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.