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July 7, 2006
Acting out a conflict
Interactive play tackles Mideast situation.
VERONIKA STEWART
Director David Diamond and co-host Stephen Aberle presented a theatre
project on Middle East relations last week as part of the World
Urban Forum and World Peace Forum.
Palestine, Israel and Me: A Power Play takes the form of
"forum theatre," in which the audience participates extensively
in the dialogue of the play, while the actors, in character, play
along. It's a little like a group therapy session, with the emcees
– Diamond and Aberle – coaching the participants/audience
members and evaluating each situation as it arises.
During the performance, the audience watched two short plays which
ended with no resolution. The audience then watched the same plays
again, but the second time, were permitted to stop the action and
take the place of one of the actors in an attempt to resolve the
conflict, or "safen" the situation, as Diamond put it.
Touching on topics relevant to a range of different age groups,
the plays presented very real situations involving North American
Jews and Palestinians, caught up in the battles going on in their
respective homelands. For example, the play showcased the Palestinian
frustration with Jewish North Americans' tendency to bring up the
Holocaust in arguments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an
incident they feel has no real modern-day context. In solving this
conflict, audience members suggested that the Palestinian actor,
instead of saying, "I don't want to hear about it," express
his regrets over the Holocaust, but then add that one person's suffering
does not cancel out another's. On the other side of the spectrum,
a Jewish frustration at terrorism and lack of recognition given
to Israel was also present, and it was offered no real solution.
Nour Abdulla, a young actress in the performance who moved to Canada
from Egypt two years ago, said her upbringing had been largely anti-Semitic,
but that upon moving to Canada, she became interested in an alternative
perspective.
"I do want to listen. I want to know the other side. Maybe
I'm getting it wrong," Abdulla explained. "A lot has changed
[since she participated in the workshop]. For example, I've gotten
to know that Israel does not represent all Jews."
She also emphasized the importance of listening to one another as
a key strategy in coming to some kind of middle ground in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
Naomi Paz Greenberg, an audience member who volunteered twice to
intervene on a scene, agreed.
"I've discovered, and I've tried to communicate that to other
people, that the most effective method of intervention is when you
ask for help," said Greenberg. "That's when people start
hearing you – not when you try to tell them how to behave."
Greenberg said she loved the performance and, as a peace activist,
came primarily to see pacifist techniques in action.
Another enthusiastic audience member, Lisa Wulwik, said she appreciated
that the performance challenged the audience to look at a situation
from several perspectives.
Wulwick said that from an activist's perspective, many of the scenes
showed that creative techniques are needed to really get a point
across in a tense conflict and that often rationalization may fall
on deaf ears.
Diamond, who also directs forum theatre on other topics, said he
was pleased with the outcome of the event.
"I think we could have gone for a lot longer," he said,
"so that's an indicator to me that the audience was deeply
involved and activated by the event. I've had plenty of comments
from both Jews and Palestinians who've identified themselves as
such to me and said that they were terrified to come to this thing
and that they were very grateful for the safe space that was created
– to have what they considered a very deep conversation about
these issues."
Palestine, Israel and Me: A Power Play was a joint effort
between Jews for a Just Peace and the Unitarian Church. It was endorsed
by the Canadian Palestinian Association and the Palestinian Community
Centre and is the outcome of a workshop put on by Diamond two months
ago.
The scenes were based on the real-life experiences of participants,
although the actors did not play themselves. The plays, although
similar each time acted out, were also never written down, Diamond
said: "pen never hit paper."
Veronika Stewart is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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