Where are all the brilliant Israeli playwrights? Your country needs you now.
Lack of Israeli representation on the stage puts Palestinian work front and centre
First it was the flags, next it was the chants, then it was the images, and now it’s the “Gaza genocide” performances that are being staged in UK theatre venues.
Because yes, “Gaza genocide” has become a meme and Palestinian playwrights are busy scribbling away, writing plays on the theme. And, as you can imagine, these performances do not show Israel in a good light.
And the tragedy is that Gaza genocide, at first just a seed, has now grown into something potentially huge. Its roots are firmly implanted here in the UK with councillors and Members of Parliament campaigning under a Palestinian flag.
And here’s the thing, this really matters, because theatre is powerful, and, just as it can inform, so too it can misinform.
And audiences rarely question, let alone challenge, the content they see on stage. The mere fact that they are prepared to attend a play means they are starting to engage with that performance and its message.
And in this context, the pen is indeed mightier than the sword. Words, graphic images, storylines are unchallenged; it is rare for an audience member to stand up and refute misinformation. And, in this climate, it would take a brave person to do so in the UK.
But where are the Israeli plays telling their side of the conflict?
In conversation with a London theatre director this week he proudly told me about a “terrific new Gaza genocide play” his venue will be staging in coming months.
As a proud Jew, and someone involved in the UK theatre world, I asked him when the action in the play took place, venturing to suggest it was depicting events post October 7, with no mention of the atrocities that took place on the day. He admitted this was, of course, the case.
“How about some balance?” I asked. “A play from an Israeli perspective.”
His response was troubling.
“I happily would do it but I can’t find anything,” he admitted. “I have looked, and I’ve seen a couple of scripts, but none as good as the Palestinian ones. If I can find the right script, I’ll stage it.”
Israel has a fine tradition of brilliant playwrights – Hanoch Levin, Anat Gov and Edna Mazia, to name a few.
I write this in a week when pro-Palestine activists disrupted a theatre performance in London, and Green Party activists declared Jewish people “an abomination to this planet”. Now really is the time for Israeli creatives to heed this call to arms and write powerful new plays.
Caroline Friedman is a UK theatre journalist. A theatre producer and writer, she is the founder of Scenesaver, the world’s largest free theatre streaming site, an executive member of the Fringe Theatre Awards, a trustee of Book, Music and Lyrics and an assessor for OffWestEnd theatre awards.
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