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16-08-2008 18:46
I can only assume that the responses questioning the review are coming from interested parties or those attached to the production. The review actually goes easy on a very mediocre piece of work. This show was the most unsubtle, undergraduate, overpromising and underdelivering piece I have seen in a long time.
It approaches such an important topic and does a complete disservice for the causes that it wishes to serve. The one dimensional characterisations, and shallow cliche-ridden script are an instant turn-off.
The banality of the evil that exists in this conflict - which remains one of its most horrifying aspects - is diminished by the easy characterisations the writers choose, such as the fact that the opening scene has soldiers laughing and joking about a week long gang rape of a minor, among other absurdities all throughout the piece. I agree with the reviewer - I am sure these things have happened, and do happen. But when characters are so inhuman at every single turn as to become unreal, not only is the audience turned off, but the very important message that the work wishes to convey is lost. How much more affecting would such a work have been if the IDF had been portrayed as an army of conscripted kids on the other side of the fence, rather than faceless monsters?
There are brief moments - like at the Palestinian permit office - when the skill of the actors comes across, and they are like an oasis in this otherwise lifeless piece. The piece does not shock, and it does not engage.
Two other brief mentions (really for the production members ready to respond) - the scene with the demonic rabbi voice telling the soldier that 'the purity of arms' doctrine means killing women and children in war is like something out of 'The Exorcist', and the cliche of 'you were in Auchwitz, now you are doing that to me' almost in so many words is such an easy cliche. My intelligence was insulted by these weak sledgehammer moments.
The work does nothing to advance either understanding of, or engagement in the wider Palestinian cause. Such a shame to see a forum like this so utterly wasted.
