Two
views of "The Ally"
The Ally
For the most part, I don’t like plays about “issues.” I’m also not fond of plays that are based on the beliefs of the characters rather than their actions. But somehow Itamar Moses’s The Ally, now making its premiere at The Public Theater, blew all those opinions away. Moses, who demonstrated his sensitivity to Arab/Israeli relations in his Tony award-winning The Band’s Visit, once again shows there are many sides to a story. What’s more, he manages to combine the story line and the debate in a meaningful way that doesn’t seem at all forced. Asaf Sternheim (Josh Radnor) is a playwright, part-time professor (he only teaches one course) and a not very observant Jew married to an Asian woman, Gwen (Joy Osmanski), who also works for the same unnamed university as a liaison with the beleaguered Black community. When one of this African American students, Baron Prince (Elijah Jones), asks him to sign a petition seeking justice for his cousin, Deronte, who was brutally murdered by the police, Asaf is eager to do so, until he finds out the petition also makes a statement against Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, and it does so using such inflammatory words as “genocide” and “apartheid.” The situation escalates when two students, the Jewish Rachel (Madeline Weinstein), and the Palestinian Farid (Michael Khalid Karadsheh), from two different pro-Palestinian student groups, ask Asaf to sponsor a new student group that will bring a previously banned speaker to the university. The speaker was banned because the university administrators believe he calls for the destruction of Israel. The students point out he merely claims all Israel’s so-called defensive wars were really land grabs. The situation is complicated by the fact that Asaf’s old girlfriend, Nakia (Cherise Boothe) is behind both the student group and the petition, and further complicated by the very real possibility his actions will affect his wife’s position with the university. Not all the scenes in The Ally are equally well acted and some of the conversation at the beginning of the first act is too generic to be interesting. But after we learn what’s at stake, the drama, under Lila Neugebauer’s direction, flies swiftly to its very moving end. Although the play is about Asaf and the dilemma’s he faces, the emotional core of the play’s message lies with two students, Reuven (Ben Rosenfield), an Orthodox Jew who reminds Asaf of the centuries-old suffering and vulnerability of his people, and Farid, who describes the decades-long trauma of his people. The Ally, which was written before Oct. 7 and the subsequent war, makes no points that have not been made before. The problem is that often people who have the strongest opinions have not really listened to facts that contradict those opinions. So it is important that The Ally repeats those points in an especially coherent and heart-rending way. It is certainly doubtful The Ally will change anyone’s mind. Nevertheless, it would be wonderful if all the protestors on both sides could see this play and come away with the understanding, which Asaf articulates throughout the play: “it’s complicated.” But even more importantly, The Ally shows us that the more we truly understand every side of the question, the harder it is to take sides. “The Ally” “The Ally” If you don’t have the time to read or listen to every argument about the Israeli-Palestinian question, spend an evening at the Public Theater production of “The Ally” (ie America’s ally, Israel) and you will get it all. In an entertaining and succinct fashion. From the voices of characters who represent the various sides and in-between of the debates. Itamar Moses has presented a theatrically staged event that could easily have occurred, and parts already have in U.S. spaces, especially universities, where this story takes place. Director Lila Neugebauer allows passion to power the arguments without ever becoming nasty.
It has all the elements. Asaf (Josh Radnor) with family roots in Israel is a playwright married to Gwen (Joy Osmanski) who happens to be Asian. He followed her from New York when she got a job as a university “outreach” official. Her job is to smooth the way for a community to accept expansion of the university, a move that destroyed another community. But she is sure it won’t happen this time. Asaf, working on his plays, also teaches one course a year. His most talented student, Baron (the very good Elijah Jones with a defining street accent), arrives distraught because a cousin has been killed – murdered as shown on a video – when stopped for no reason and, when he asked why, was thrown to the ground, hitting his head. The cops were investigating a car theft. The culprit was found later. They said the murdered youth grabbed for a gun; the video shows that was a lie.
At the same college is Nakia (Cherise Botthe) a black woman Asaf was briefly married to a few decades earlier. He is “progressive,” she very radical. She wears an The Ally African-style beehive hairdo. Baron wants Asaf to sign a protest manifesto. Nakia wrote it. Asaf will, though he is bothered by text that talks about the apartheid state of Israel. Asaf wonder why that is the only other country mention in this way. Not India over Kashmir, China over Tibet or the Uyghurs, Turkey over the Kurds. I must interject here to tell the readers and the author that the charge of China abusing the Uyghurs is U.S. propaganda. Some Uyghur separatists who set off bombs that killed people were arrested. The U.S. sent Uyghurs it labeled terrorists to Guantanamo. Since the U.S. targeted China as “the enemy,” it no longer mentions that. See this for details. https://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2023/12/all-static-and-noise-anti-china-propaganda-film-about-uyghurs/ Asaf doesn’t like use of the word “genocide.” Well, there’s a lot of evidence for that. Or that the U.S. is complicit. That too.
It won’t end there. Asaf is visited by two students, a Jewish activist Rachel (a funny quirky Madeline Weinstein with a great exaggerated college girl accent) and a Palestinian, Farid (Michael Khalid Karadsheh), who has family in the West Bank. They want to sponsor a talk by a prominent Middle East expert professor, but her group’s national office won’t permit it. Claims the professor calls for the destruction of Israel. The students need a sponsor to run a joint event, and ask Asaf. Yes.
We hear the students talking about Israel’s expansion of territory, using the 1948 war for cover to push Palestinians out, the 1967 “preemptive strike.” You learn some history. Including the contention that the U.S. used 9/11 to make state surveillance for endless war. Well, yes, that happened. Asaf argues with his liberal Bay Area Jewish self. He is the in-between, unsure, looking for answers while the others are certain. Meanwhile, Asaf’s wife Gwen (Joy Osmanski) is worried what effect his support of such activists will have on the university’s donors. (Itamar Moses is quite au courant. For donors, read Marc Rowan, who got the president of the University of Pennsylvania fired for allowing Palestinian voices and not declaring mea culpa in a congressional hearing. Rowan runs Apollo, the private equity fund that owns Athene Life, an insurance company that does phony accounting that should elicit SEC charges if it cared. So much for “morality.” See this. https://100r.org/2022/09/insurance-company-captives/)
Then another student, Reuven (a passionate Ben Rosenfield) arrives to give the AIPAC/Israeli government view charging advocates for Palestine with anti-Semitism. He claims that Israel is surrounded by hundreds of millions of Arabs ready to overrun it. (The reality is that the surrounding Arab states do not support the Palestinians, some have trade and arms deals with Israel and even use its surveillance technology. When I asked the Lebanese foreign minister what Arab states were doing to help the Palestinians, he fudged. https://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2024/01/to-lebanon-foreign-minister-why-are-arab-states-not-protecting-palestinians/) The pro-Palestinian Rachel says she thought “never again was for everyone, not just us.”
Moses vividly sets out the arguments on all sides. He even includes radical Nakia linking the issue to capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy. (Arguments can be made.) All the actors are excellent. This play exercises the mind and the passions and should be put
on at colleges around the country to expose students to all views
of the issue. Unfortunately, people like Marc Rowan might threaten
to pull out their megabucks to block opinions other than their own. Visit Lucy’s website https://thekomisarscoop.com/ |
| recordings | coupons | publications | classified |