Mai Weisz, Sofia Danu, Luca Kamleh Chapman, Joe Haddad
(Picture: Ali Wright)The title of Sami Ibrahim’s play – including that deliberately annoying lower-case wording - turns out to be the least provoking thing about it. Set in 2043 in the West Bank town of Beit-al-Qadir during a fifth intifada against Israeli incursions, it’s a Brechtian assault on the audience’s conscience, comfort and patience. The script won the Theatre Uncut Political Playwriting Prize in 2019, however, and even though it’s relentlessly, wilfully infuriating, it stays with you.
The story of one couple’s loss and struggle, involving the killing of two Palestinian girls and a female Israeli soldier, is broken into 26 scenes and an epilogue. Much of it is narrated over stationary microphones with sardonic, angry mistress-of-ceremonies Reem (Hala Omran) regularly breaking off to harangue the audience. “F*** you, go home, show some respect,” she says, early on.
