Traveling Jewish Theater's new journey
By KELLY HARTOG

       A small boy stands surrounded by a group of children as they taunt him simultaneously in English, Hebrew and Arabic.
       "Dirty Jew," some of them hiss.
       "Filthy Arab," call out others.
       The "boy" in question is Ibi, as portrayed by 29-year-old Arab Israeli actor Ibrahim Miari, and the action is unfolding on a stage in Berkeley, California, as part of the San Francisco-based Traveling Jewish Theater's (TJT) latest production, Blood Relative.
       TJT aims to produce innovative, original Jewish works, relying heavily on physical theater and unconventional methods.
       Blood Relative is the 27-year-old company's attempt to deal with the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It's taken the company three years to create this story and bring it to the stage.
       TJT artistic director Aaron Davidman made trips to Israel to do research and meet with Palestinians and Israelis. He ended up hiring a Palestinian actor (Miari) and an Israeli actress - Meirav Kupperberg - whom he discovered at the Acre Festival, to be part of the production. Now, TJT has set its sights on bringing Blood Relative to Israel.
Meirav Kupperberg in the Traveling Jewish Theater's production of 'Blood Relative.'

       The play centers on Ibi, the son of an Arab father and a Jewish mother, and his inner conflict about his true identity, his inability to take sides and his suffering at the hands of both peoples.
       Miari himself is the son of an Arab father and a Yemenite Jewish mother. He was born and raised in Acre, has both Jewish and Arab friends and speaks Hebrew, Arabic and English fluently. However, he says that he is not personally conflicted. His mother converted to Islam, and Miari grew up a Muslim.
       "My ancestors are from Palestine so I'm a Palestinian," Miari told The Jerusalem Post in a recent interview. "But I'm still an Israeli citizen and it's such a sensitive issue in Israel."
       Miari says if he mentions that he's an Israeli citizen, Palestinians demand to know how he can deny his Palestinian side. On the flip side, if he says he's a Palestinian, Israelis ask him if he's willing to give up his Israeli passport.
       "I didn't choose to be born in this country," Miari said. "I am an Arab, Palestinian, Muslim, Israeli, but I am also exactly what I say in the play: 'I'm a human being.'"
       It is one of the most chilling lines in the entire production. In the hands of anyone else, it would sound trite. And while Miari is the first to admit Ibi is not him, when those words explode from his mouth, you know they're genuine.
       It's that level of authenticity that saw Miari confront Davidman when he turned up at the Acre Festival. He asked Davidman how he could possibly do a production on the conflict in the Middle East without Palestinian and Israeli actors. Enter Miari and Kupperberg.
       In truth, it is Miari who holds this production together. There's nothing linear about the story being told here. It's a collection of work-shopped vignettes, some of which hit the mark and some of which miss wildly. There's an earnestness about TJT's production, a palpable desire to "get it
right," although sometimes it seems as though the actors are not really clear about what that is.        Without Miari, Blood Relative could easily have disintegrated into a mish-mash of well-meaning but directionless storylines.
       You've got to work hard to keep up. There are dead ancestors (both Arab and Jewish) wandering in and out of the production. There's an attempt to condense the entire history of the modern State of Israel from both the Palestinian and the Israeli perspective into a 10-minute segment, leaving the arguments as nothing more than a few throwaway lines. At times the production comes perilously close to being nothing more than a staged talking heads debate - a debate with overly simplistic arguments.
       And yet at times it has flashes of brilliance. The telling of the story that supposedly created the Arab/Jewish rift to start with is handled brilliantly, and the conceit underscores the entire production. Was it Isaac, the son of Sarah, who was taken to be sacrificed by Abraham, or was it Ishmael, the son of Hagar, Abraham's maidservant? From Isaac, the Jewish nation was born; from Ishmael, the Arab nation.
       And there's been trouble ever since.
       Another scene that hits the mark is one in which Kupperberg finally steals the limelight from right under Miari's nose in a brilliant parody of a dialogue group televised debate. All the caricatures are there: the right-wing kippa-wearing 20-something who's just made aliya from the US and can do little more than bang on about the Holocaust ad nauseam; the PLO representative, spitting venom and destruction to Israelis and played brilliantly by Arab American actress Nora el-Samahy, and finally there's Kupperberg's character, Yael - a representative of WAV (Women Against Violence), who resembles a Stockholm Syndrome victim veering out of control. She constantly interrupts the moderator to apologize profusely to the PLO rep for absolutely everything the Jews have (and haven't) done to the Palestinians. She comes perilously close to threatening to throw herself into the sea and eventually runs into the audience and apologizes to each and every individual, but stops just short of apologizing for being born.
       It's a hysterically funny scene, while at the same time being frighteningly real. It hits home with a one-two punch, thanks to Kupperberg's passion and conviction and the company's decision to not take itself so seriously - albeit briefly.
       "I had a personal part in writing this scene and editing it," said Kupperberg. "Sometimes the best way to deal with sensitive issues is with humor and Yael came from my gut. That text is a combination of my side that really does want to say sorry, but there are so many people in this
conflict that have self-hatred and at times I feel like I can't exist with all the apologies."        TJT makes no attempt to answer any questions. In some ways the play is just as messy and confusing as the Middle East conflict itself. The company puts out the generic argument that it hopes those who see the production will continue to dialogue and ask questions.
       TJT is not the first and won't be the last theater company to attempt to tackle the Middle East conflict.
       Where it does shine is in its decision to hire a Palestinian and an Israeli to take part in the production - not as some kind of kitschy brotherly-love gesture, but in bringing a level of authenticity to the show that could not have been captured without Miari and Kupperberg, both of whom live this conflict every day of their lives.
       Says, "Culture is not something you can create, it's part of your nature, and I could bring that to this production in a natural way and make it understandable for people who are not Israeli," Kupperberg said.
       And for Miari, it all comes down to the ever-present search for peace.
       "I believe anyone who wants to live in peace has to start with peace with himself. Life is not only conflict and war. I do believe people can live together in existence. I don't say 'coexistence' because that already talks about two completely separate things."
       And, as he is quick to remind everyone both on stage and off, at the end of the day, we are all human beings.