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In some
ways, What We Did to Weinstein is disappointing - populated by
stereotypes, prone to clumsy exposition and unedifying rants - nonetheless,
it is also provoking and, in places, powerfully written. Ryan Craig's
message is simple, and clearly summed up by the epigraph to the published
text of the play, from Milan Kundera: 'Hate traps us by binding us too
tightly to our adversary. This is the obscenity of war'.
Craig
makes this obscenity obvious even in the structure of the play. He switches
suddenly between separate but related incidents, and Tim Supple's direction
emphasises the parallels with some smooth, swift transitions between
dialogues and scenes that share characters, props or locations. The
structure also echoes classical tragedy, beginning as it does with an
Israeli officer going over the report of a soldier, Josh, who has committed
a 'serious offence' and 'lost control' while patrolling the West Bank.
A retrospective account of Josh's life ensues, going far beyond the
requirements of explaining Josh's disobedient, catastrophic action.
What emerges is a story less about a military than a familial failure.
The officer's insistence that he needs to understand Josh quite as well
as this is hard to swallow.
Josh is actually a Londoner by birth. His difficult, dying father, Max,
is renowned as a writer but estranged from his son in political terms.
Josh's girlfriend, Sara, is a conscientious journalist who upsets her
own father, Sam, with her forthright reporting on the violent, ongoing
conflict in Israel. With convenient symmetry, Sam is both Max's literary
agent and his long-time friend. They share an awful secret - something
they and their childhood friends did to a certain Weinstein. This gives
the play its title. They would be calling it a lesson from history,
were it not suppressed and therefore tragically unheeded.
Around these Jewish characters, Craig neatly arranges the story of Yasmin,
Max's nurse, and her brother, Tariq, who spits hatred at materialist
Westerners and threatens a bloody revenge. Briefly, there is story of
the man Josh takes prisoner on the West Bank, a Palestinian called Yusef,
who may or may not be a terrorist. (The excellent Pushpinder Chani plays
both Tariq and Yusef, chilling as one and charming as the other.) There
is even a lovely encounter with an English skinhead, who despises the
'backward culture' of immigrants, but does not see himself as discriminating
unfairly: 'How can I be a racialist if I'm prepared to shag a Paki?'
Deliberately or not, Craig refrains from giving his characters much
in the way of individualising traits. Instead, they represent degrees
on an ethical compass, some pointing to death and destruction, including
their own, others holding out for peace. For Craig, it is the group
to which each individual belongs that dictates how each encounter turns
out, whether it is between skinhead and journalist, writer and agent,
or dying Jewish patient and young Muslim nurse. Perhaps this is beside
the point.
Craig seems more concerned with the clash between strong, rival beliefs,
and, in a sense, with guilt. Sam calls the Weinstein incident a 'disgrace',
a crime for which he must take a share of the responsibility: 'We have
to face what we did'. He confronts it by writing a story about it. Equally
involved, Max baulks at publishing this, in spite of his eagerness to
get his hands on something new by the great writer. At this point, the
play starts to warm up, with Leonard Fenton as Sam and Harry Towb as
Max giving credible performances as men who have grown old under the
shadow a shameful secret. Likewise, Fenton and Miranda Pleasence as
Sara share a sharply observed, funny scene early on, as a father and
his distressingly independent-minded daughter. Given to drink, casual
sex and defensive sarcasm, Pleasence's character is far from perfect,
however, and it is not her principles but her lack of them that destroys
her relationship with Josh.
One of the best scenes has her and Josh meeting again after their relationship
is over, to shout half-affectionately at one another in a nightclub.
Competing with the relentless beat, Josh somehow manages to confess
to his problem - 'I don't know what it is, but I've had this feeling
for a long time. A really long time. I'm incredibly angry. All the time.
Just extremely angry.' But Sara has a date, and has to go.
Josh Cohen has perhaps the most demanding role in What We Did to
Weinstein; the fictional Josh requires the actor Josh to go from
blank-eyed military prisoner to decent, younger civilian and back again.
Along the way, Cohen is funny (dealing with an obstreperous father),
brash (getting in a fight with Tariq) and confused (Sara runs rings
round him in their arguments). It is just that it is hard to believe
that Josh (the character, but the actor, too, for that matter) runs
on extreme anger all the time. In any case, Supple, Craig and company
have succeeded in delivering a forceful and challenging play. The obscenity
of war is clear, even if its victims' individuality is not.
Till 12
November 2005
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