A couple of weeks ago the Dove and husband saw Traveling Jewish Theatre's new play, Blood Relative. This ensemble piece, several years in the making, tells the story of an Israeli man whose father is Palestinian and mother is Jewish. He has been brutalized by both sides during a street demonstration, and he spends the play in his apartment, wrestling with the ghosts of his grandparents and the real life characters who barge in on him.
Georges Lammam, a prominent musician, performed his own compositions on violin, oud, tar and riq (tambourine), often walking around the stage. His artistry was crucial to the atmosphere of the play, and the Dove wept when he sang about hope, in character as the ghost great-grandfather.
Nora Al-Samahy and Ibrahim Miari, the two Arab actors, did long scenes together as grandmother and half-breed grandson. Nora must be commended for the range of characters she played - vamping, singing in Arabic, dancing and fighting with Ibrahim's Jewish grandfather. The Dove particularly loved the Egyptian pyramids scene, where Ibrahim put on an Egyptian accent and played the movie director of grandma's fantasies, offering to make her a star. But all the actors got to show off their skills.
Ibrahim Miari carries the whole play, as well as the history of two people, on his back. Ibbi, or Avi, wanders ancient water tunnels with his Jewish grandfather and gets lost in the souk while accompanying his Arab grandmother; the child Ibbi plays rhyming games in both Hebrew and Arabic with his friends from either side, but both sets of children end up tormenting him.
Corey Fischer, one of the founders of Traveling Jewish Theatre, commanded the stage in his various incarnations as bedraggled Israeli war hero junkie, TV dialogue group emcee, and even a balloon seller in the souk. Eric Rhys Miller, the Jewish grandfather, also did a turn as a Jewish settler, just off the boat from the USA. Meirav Kupperberg provided comic relief and a kind ear as the maid who tries to clean up Ibbi's wrecked flat.
Ibbi's grandfather demands that he choose between his identities - and choose Jewish, while Ibbi just wants to be a human being. Can one soul be divided? One city? One land? the grandfather asks. Since the Dove was born and raised straddling two cultures, she doesn't see division, she sees multiplicity.
The Dove's husband, who is completely a Californian, and a Berkeleyite at that, did not understand the enormous gap between the two identities, the enormous pressure in Israel and the Middle East for those of dual identities to pick a tribe and stick to it. By allowing Ibbi's ancestors to wander the stage and interact, some of these conflicts are made flesh. A memorable moment is a kind of tango fight between the Arab grandmother and Jewish grandfather.