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Theatre

Review: Reading Hebron

Guilty of a partial view of Jewish guilt

February 17, 2011 11:03
David Antrobus (left, with Peter Guinness) plays  the Jewish liberal diaspora academic who suffers pangs of conscience over  Baruch Goldstein’s killing of 29 Muslims in Israel, and wonders whether the attitudes of all Jews are to blame

ByJohn Nathan, John Nathan

1 min read

I have long thought that the genre that is the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict play" contains enough good works for a season or two should an enterprising theatre - such as the Tricycle, perhaps, or the Orange Tree - wish to devote its stage to the most intractable problem in the world.

Canadian writer Jason Sherman's drama, which was written a year after Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Muslims in Hebron, is perhaps unique as the only conflict play written from the point of view of a guilty conscience.

That conscience belongs not to Goldstein but to Nathan Abramowitz (David Antrobus), a fictional, secular Jewish academic who, though he has never been to Israel, feels guilt for the crime committed by his fellow Jew.

Sherman anchors his play to the transcripts of the Israeli inquiry into the atrocity. Sam Walters's production reflects a meandering narrative that interweaves Abramowitz's dysfunctional personal life with his fevered attempt to find answers. His polite conversations with Israeli and Palestinian officials segue into charged exchanges during which the Israelis label him a "self-hating Jew" and the Palestinians accuse him of being a patronising do-gooder.