Golden Thread Productions is currently offering two plays in San Francisco. One is a world premiere of a New Voices/New Work Commission produced in association with New Conservatory Theatre Center (“The Tutor” by Torange Yeghiazarian) and the other is a much older piece, the novel ‘Returning to Haifa’ written by Ghasan Kanafani in 1969, and adapted for the stage by Naomi Wallace and Ismail Khalidi.
Golden Thread Productions is the first American theatre company exclusively devoted to the Middle East. Since 1996, GTP has been offering a variety of productions intended to inform American audiences of Middle East cultures and viewpoints and build empathy for communities who live with the complexities of very challenging geo-political realities, subject to many misunderstandings and confusion. The company has a history of courageously taking on challenging subject matter in original works presented with a high degree of professionalism.
‘The Tutor” tells the coming out story of an Iranian woman in America, as she struggles with her various identities as a young Persian, a young lesbian, and an American student. The play explores many aspects of the Iranian diaspora in the wake of the fall of the Pahlavi regime in 1979, and the establishment if the Islamic Republic of Iran. Baran (Maya Nazzal) is the wife of Kayvon, (Lawrence Radecker), a much older man who married the young Iranian woman at the behest of his aging mother. Essentially, she is the equivalent of a mail order bride. After arriving in America, she is a less than willing lover, and Baran is confused and frustrated. He calls upon his closest friend, the University professor Azar (Debórah Eliezer), to help Baran acclimate herself to her new life.
The situation is complicated when Azar and Baran fall in love
As the threesome work to accommodate this complex triangle, they explore many related issues regarding women’s identity, patriarchy, family commitment, friendship, politics, and what we owe to our loved ones.
It is a complex play, full of feeling, but perhaps too complex. I had the impression that the script tried to do too much, and occasionally lapsed into cliched writing, although director Sahar Asaaf does a good job of keeping the story easy to follow and bringing out emotion in her actors.
The issues explored are important, and the effort to expand our understanding of Lesbian/queer identity beyond the mainstream American culture is important. ‘The Tutor’ is a worthwhile play that deserves to be seen.
“Return to Haifa,” is based on a novel published in 1968 by Arab writer Ghassan Kanafani . It is especially relevant today, given the situation in Gaza.
Said and Sofiyya (Lijesh Krishnan and Amal Bisharat) were forced to leave Ghaza at the time of Al Nakba (“The Catastrophe), as Palesteinians call the forced exodus of Palestinians that accompanied the establishment of Israel. They abandoned their home and and their missing son. The play opens 25 years later. We learn that they have raised a second son, about whom Said is very concerned because the young man has expressed an interest in joining a Palestinian fighters against the Israeli occupation. Said, a peaceful, intellectual man, wants his son to avoid politics and war and devote himself to University studies.
In a conversation between the couple, we learn that they have been recently advised by Israeli authorities that they are welcome to pay a visit to Haifa after all these years, and see their old home. Sofiyya wants to go, but Said insists that it is a bad idea. He doesn’t want to think about the past. He abhors politics. He just wants to focus on their present life. But when his perceptive wife accuses him of planning to go secretly on his own, he admits he shares her desire and they make the trip.
Said and Safiyya drive to Haifa and visit their old home, now occupied by Miriam, an Israeli woman (Michelle Navarette) and her family, including her son Dov, who is an Israeli soldier. Miriam graciously welcomes Said and Safiyya, although Said is resentful and challenges her right to be there. She explains that she too has been a refugee, and came to Haifa from the concentration camps of Europe. She and her husband were not thinking of displacing anybody, but only hoping to find a home to start a new life. They were delighted to be offered a place to live, provided they were willing to adopt the child of a couple who had fled the violence when the baby could not be found. In a Dickensian twist, we discover that Dov, Miriam’s Israeli soldier son, is the birth child of Said and Safiyya.
This convenient plot twist stretches our credulity, but its emotional impact is undeniable. Miriam and Safiyya, the two mothers of Dov, immediately bond, and we sense an understanding. Said is shocked, and anxious to meet his son, and hopes to reclaim him.
Dov arrives, returning from a military patrol, and in a climactic scene declares that he is a Jew, will always fight for Israel, and that Said and Safiyya are not his parents. He wants nothing to do with them. Shocked and saddened, Said and Safiyya leave. Said now says that he thinks it would be best, after all, if his second son were to become a fighter for the Palestinian cause and make him proud.
This story is moving and it is played well by a capable company of actors. It is notable for the depth of sympathy shown to all the characters, and it certainly has the power to provoke empathy. The story is told through the perspective not only of the present Said and Safiyya, but also that of their younger selves, played by Jacob Henri-Nafaa and Dial Al-Abad. Henri-Nafaa also plays the Israeli soldier, Dov.
In this production, the acting is sometimes a bit stilted, and certain details are not well handled. For example, the car ride to Haifa. We know that Said and Safiyya are riding in a car which Said is presumably driving, but insufficient care has been taken to convey the physical aspects of that reality.
My main difficulty with the production, however, is in the character of Dov. The Israeli soldier is presented as a bit of a caricature, a sneering bully. Given the sympathetic portrayal of all the other characters, I think this may be out-of-line with the playwrights’ intent. If Dov is truly reflective and intellectual, like Said, then his loyalty to Israel would be motivated by sincere love of country and an honest belief in the goodness of his cause, rather than a blanket contempt for Palestinians. In making him contemptuous, the delicate balance between Said’s two sons (one Palestinian and one Israeli) is thrown off and the insight of shared humanity implicit in the story is slightly compromised.
What is most important about this production, though, is that it exists at all. We need theatre that brings empathy to discussions of the conflicts in the Middle East, and Golden Thread is certainly to be congratulated for stepping up to this enormously difficult challenge.
“Returning to Haifa” continues at the Protreo Stage though May 4. For further information, click here.
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Rating for both plays : *** (For an explanation of Theatrestorm’s rating scale, click here.)
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