THE ARAB-ISRAELI COOKBOOK. To 10 July.
London
THE ARAB-ISRAELI COOKBOOK
by Robin Soans
Gate Theatre To 10 July 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm also Sun 27 June 6pm no performance 21,26 June, 3 July
Runs 2hr 40min One interval
TICKETS: 020 7229 0706
Review: Timothy Ramsden 19 June
Sudden shocks from bombs; daily humiliation by a government: the ingredients of remarkable resilience and even optimism.Personal stories can help combat the wartime juggernaut, reminding the world (or such of it as can cram into the Gate) it's people living in a conflict zone. Hopes soar, fears clutch, agony bites and perseverance struggles on; the mundane acquires a new glow amid the suffering and death.
Which is why the documentary material collected last September and October through conversations with Arab and Israeli people makes powerful theatre. Robin Soans' script garnered in Israel and the West Bank focuses on food. Parts are recipe-demonstrations into which the conflict trickles almost casually; others place food as the natural activity blown aside by bombs and fear.
Produced jointly with the Caird Company, the Cookbook is played with minimal external indications of nationality; generally, the only identification is dialogue reference. The question of a character's side of the divide soon melts into an appreciation of common humanity.
Humanity underpins one of the sharpest political observation, of a Jewish woman returning to a bombed supermarket for her shopping, seeing the full devastation (piles of toilet paper protected the shoppers initially) and noting the bombers warned away nearby Arab stallholders, leaving the Jewish ones to die.
That story's told with seizures of grief by Sheila Hancock. She's magnificent too as an elderly wife, bent and strained, isolated with her husband in their village (why try to visit the town as you used when it could mean half a day queuing to be humiliatingly body-searched?), and a Christian woman for whom the political situation keeps flicking in among calmly described food-preparation.
A young gay couple squabble affectionately over food preparations as they talk of the battle zone impinging on their lives. A restaurateur describes a miracle - a 16 year old boy bomber who planted a bomb on the restaurant's only empty day. It was devastated, but only the bomber was killed. Here, as elsewhere, destruction's related more in sorrow than anger; a young life lost matters more than a terrorist being destroyed. Directors Rima Brihi and Tim Roseman (themselves bridging the political gap) focus this strong company's performances to maximum effect.
Mordechai/Amon/David/Yaakov: Keith Bartlett
Rena/elti/Shoshi/Amal: Amanda Boxer
Nadia/Rose/Vitya: Sheila Hancock
Fadi/Assistant/Guy/Daniel/Tim: Tom McKay
Idan/Dinu/Alon/Raoul/Mohamad: Daniel Pirrie
Levana/hala/Myra/Rivka/nina/Fattiyah: Abigail Thaw
Waiter/Hossin/customer/Liron/Naji/Mounther: Ben Turner
9old Man/Abdullah/Aharon/Giora/Squash Club President/Neighbour: Jerome Willis
Directors: Rima Brihi, Tim Roseman
Designer: Rachel Blues
Lighting: David Plater
Sound: Neil Alexander
Movement: Liz Rankin
Dialect coach: Martin McKellan
Assistant designer: Lucy Osborne
2004-06-21 06:28:30