When Caryl Churchill's short play, Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza premiered in February 2009 at the Royal Court in London, it met with an impassioned response--dividing critics and audiences. According to the Guardian, "The Guardian's Michael Billington called it a 'heartfelt lamentation
Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon, writing in the March 26, 2009 issue of The Nation, defended Churchill against charges of anti-Semitism in an article titled "Tell Her the Truth:"
"We emphatically disagree," they wrote. "We think Churchill's play should be seen and discussed as widely as possible. Though you'd never guess from the descriptions offered by its detractors, the play is dense, beautiful, elusive and intentionally indeterminate. This is not to say that the play isn't also direct and elusive and intentionally indeterminate. This is not to say that the play isn't also direct and incendiary. It is. It's disturbing, it's provocative, but appropriately so, given the magnitude of the calamity it enfolds in its pages. Any play about the crisis in the Middle East that doesn't arouse anger and distress has missed the point.
Upon reading the Kushner and Solomon article, Z Space board member Anne Hallinan resolved to bring this brief play ( 6 pages, 10 minutes playing time) to San Francisco audiences, following the presentations in Washington, D.C., Chicago, New York, Cambridge, Los Angeles, and other U.S. cities. Joining with Word for Word Charter Member Patricia Silver to form Agora Theater (think 'marketplace of ideas' in the public square), they then enlisted writer/director Hal Gelb to create characters and situations from Churchill's text and direct the reading. Looking for a companion piece that would both compliment and contrast with Churchill's work, Gelb, Hallinan and Silver chose Israel Horovitz' What Strong Fences Make from among the several short dramatic works written in response to Seven Jewish Children. Horovitz' initial response was to turn down a commission by Washington DC's Theatre J, but he overcame his reluctance. Disagreeing with Kushner and Solomon, he was offended by Churchill's piece and decided that another voice needed to be heard, one that presents the moral dilemmas confronting Israelis.
On Monday, November 9, both plays will be given a staged reading at Theatre Artaud, courtesy of Z Space !
Cast members include Sheila Balter, Anne Hallinan, Danielle Levin, Anthony Nemirovsky, Robert Sicular and Patricia Silver. After the readings, multicultural consultant and family therapist Jane Ariel, Ph.D. will faciliate a discussion with the audience about the plays.
Admission is FREE and no reservations are necessary.
Both playwrights have made their work available free of royalties provided that no admission fee is charged and a collection is taken for the medical charity of the playwrights' ch
Churchill requests that donations be made to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) which works for the health and dignity of Palestinians living under occupation and as refugees: http://www.map-uk.org/
Horowitz asks that audiences contribute to One Family Fund, a charity offering aid to children wounded in attacks on Israel. (One Family Fund aids Israeli-Jews, Israeli-Arabs, Israeli-Druze, Israeli-Bedouins, and children of diplomats living in Israel: http://www.onefamilyfund.org/
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