Rachel and Chaim are Orthodox Jews living in Toronto. They have requested an arranged marriage and today is their wedding day. The Yichud Room is the place where the bride and groom go to be alone immediately following the wedding ceremony. In the case of Rachel and Chaim, who have only had a handful of chaperoned dates, this is the first time they have ever been alone together. In another part of the synagogue, tensions rise between the groom's older brothers, Ephraim and Menachem, rival Torah scholars who haven't seen each other in four years. Meanwhile, the bride's parents, Mordechai and Malka, are secretly planning to divorce after the wedding. YICHUD (Seclusion) directly confronts the tensions that exist in the Orthodox Jewish world between tradition and modernity, powerfully dramatizing issues of love, marriage, respect, sex, honour, and duty.

Julie Tepperman is a playwright, actor, and educator, as well as co-artistic director (with Aaron Willis) of Convergence Theatre, listed multiple times by NOW Magazine as the "Best Site-Specific Theatre Company in Toronto." Selected plays include ROSY (as part of AutoShow), I Grow Old (as part of the Dora Mavor Moore Award–nominated The Gladstone Variations), YICHUD (Seclusion), and The Unending, all produced by Convergence Theatre. Julie has also written two August Strindberg adaptations, The Father and The Stronger; the musical The Preposterous Predicament of Polly Peel (commissioned by the Musical Stage Company and winner of a PGC Tom Henry Award and Patron’s Pick at the 2018 Toronto Fringe); the operas Bandits in the Valley and the Dora-nomiated Hook Up, both for Tapestry Opera; and Brantwood, commissioned Canadian Musical Theatre Project, Sheridan and winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Audience Choice Award. Julie has acted on stages across Toronto as well as at the Stratford Festival, where she was also a Playwright Retreat participant. She is a proud Harold Award recipient, and has been a playwright-in-residence at Theatre Passe Muraille with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Julie Tepperman's profile page

"There are dazzling highs… Tepperman has the making of a fine writer…"

Richard Ouzounian, The Toronto Star

"YICHUD (Seclusion) is a huge, impressive accomplishment… When theatre is done well, the result is glorious."

Lynn Slotkin, CBC Radio One