Director Neta Gracewell had already started work on a new theatre show when the October 7 attack happened.
A few days of research and development with the writer and two actresses had been scheduled for the week after, but Gracewell felt she could focus on nothing else but the Hamas attack.
“All these questions came up for me: ‘Is it moral to do the play?’ And ‘How can I trust these people?’” she recalls of those traumatic early days. But she decided to continue with the project “because I gained trust in these people, that they wanted to work with me and that this would be a safe space.”
Director Neta Gracewell (Photo: Omer Gaash)
Unfortunately, Neta, who lives in East London, did not feel the same sense of safety elsewhere in the creative industry. On other projects, she experienced a disappointing lack of enquiry into her and her family’s wellbeing, despite the fact she was from Israel and had moved to London four years earlier. Later, the 32-year-old would find out that a relative – her father’s cousin – had been taken hostage.
Associates’ anti-Israel posts on social media made her feel “very vulnerable” and obliged to hide her identity beneath her American accent.
“I felt really unsafe. I was so scared to open this conversation. I didn’t want to bring it into the rehearsal room as I wouldn’t be able to focus on my art. So, it was a way of trying to keep my art and my mental health safe, because the bigotry is everywhere, and the lack of empathy is everywhere.”
Director Neta Gracewell with actresses Marcia Tucker (centre) and Molly Cass O'Donnell (right)
She is happy that she did retain her focus on a new dramedy Second Hand Problems, written by playwright Emma Kelly, which will have its premiere at the Camden Fringe in August – especially as it is more than a year since her last big production. “It's been in the making for a while, and I think it's going to be very special for audiences, especially women, to see this show.”
The idea for the play emerged from a chat between four women aged 30-something to 50-something. The “dark feminist comedy” tackles the topics of femicide and abusive relationships as it tells the story of six women, one of whom is getting married today, one who has had multiple husbands, one who is trying to fill in a form at an abortion clinic and another who is looking to escape the commotion of her mother's wake.
“Even if it is a comedy, it's also very profound,” says Gracewell. “When you talk about abortion, you have the discussion about what happened in the US. You see all the news, but do you ever talk to a woman who says: ‘I’ve had an abortion and I still think about it’?”
Featuring an all-female cast and creative team, Gracewell describes Second Hand Problems as “a celebration of women, especially those aged 35-plus” who are all too invisible on our screens and stages.
Actresses Marcia Tucker (standing) and Molly Cass O'Donnell in rehearsals for Second Hand Problems
“I had some actresses write to me to say: ‘It’s incredible to see a play where the older roles have a name, and it's not just ‘mother’ or ‘grandmother’. These are real characters. They are round characters. It makes me feel seen. It makes me feel included.’ I'm doing it for the community, but also these are the things that interest us, and we want to talk about them. It's a conversation we women need.”
She adds that she hopes men, too, will find the show “funny and interesting”.
“This play creates a safe space, and men are very much invited. We would love to have men in this space as well.”
Neta Gracewell (left) with Arielle Zilkha, sound designer and composer
Still, she admits to being a little bit scared in the lead-up to the opening night. “At any moment, I'm expecting someone to say: ‘Hey, the director is Israeli. Don't go to the show.’”
This was something she experienced with her previous show, Borders, which was a political show about the secret love affair between an Israeli and a Lebanese man. “But because the new show has nothing to do with Israel or anything like that, I'm hoping it doesn't happen. I’m just very excited to be in the room with the actors and creatives.”
Second Hand Problems is at The Camden Fringe on August 2, 3 and 4. For tickets, click here
