The Arab-Israeli Cookbook, Pavilion Theatre, Brighton, April 2 (From The Argus)

The Arab-Israeli Cookbook, Pavilion Theatre, Brighton, April 2

11:30am Friday 4th April 2008 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

Through television, images of the Palestinian war - the shelling and the suicide bombings - are seen by us regularly. Less familiar are the everyday lives of the people wanting to live in peace.

This production seeks to redress that imbalance through a series of monologues, based on conversations playwright Robin Soans had with folk he met in the Middle East.

His characters - Israelis and Palestinians - talk to the audience about how they cope with the violence, whilst preparing their meals.

There is defiance from a wife determined to stay on and not go back to America after the death of her husband; grief from a mother after the loss of a child, and justification of why a girl becomes a suicide bomber.

The play was beautifully acted throughout, with Sascha Harman particularly moving as an Arab girl with an arm paralysed by a stray bullet.