THE ARAB AND THE JEW. To 9 February.

Tour/London.

THE ARAB AND THE JEW

Gecko Tour to 9 February 2008.
Runs 55min No interval.
Review; Timothy Ramsden 14 November at Palace Theatre Watford.

A lively affirmation of a deadly situation.
There’s a definite ambition to a company that takes on a key crucible of world conflict and treats it in a two-person, near wordless performance barely an hour long. If Gecko don’t analyse the conflict they express its disruptive force in a sometimes funny, often serious and frequently exhilaratingly inventive way.

It starts with a bang, and violence recurs throughout, more or less openly. It’s not long after the two figures have picked themselves mumblingly from the sand-blown post-bombed floor before they’re ‘The Arab and The Jew’, a stage double-act, their interplay interfused with violence during increasingly frenetic playings of ‘You Always Hurt the One You Love’. Later, they share a taste for the raunchier sort of night-club act, before finding themselves at a cafe table, Jew, as usual, the customer and Arab the waiter.

Here, gestures (played with remarkable precision of timing) become physical expressions of violence, the sharp sounds of blows accompanying apparently civilised behaviour. Countering this are scenes with a child-doll, a shared concern outside the conflict. When this child‘s around there is harmony and cooperation.

A little child leading them all is an image as old as the Old Testament, with plenty of sentimentality potential. What saves it from this is Gecko’s precise manipulation, both adults bending to create precise limb movements and straight-backed stance for the figure’s walk across the stage.

At each appearance the child’s life retreats before the onslaught around it, until an ending no doubt realistic amid the conflict but seeming too easily negative in terms of Gecko’s energy and originality. It’s the only problem with a high-energy, highly skilful show filled with ideas and strong images.

There’s inventive (and, given the situation, grim) use of isolated limbs reaching in from the sides of the stage. These form a wall of arms the Jew climbs only to find a sand-sifting death-head at the top, or they’re used to suggest a character is still at one side, only to have them emerge elsewhere.

This is a fast-moving, expertly-performed piece cleverly using images to show what thousands of words have not always shown before.

Performers/Artistic Directors: Amit Lahav, Al Nedjari.

Lighting: Jakie Shemesh.

2007-11-16 08:48:29