Above: cast members Aanisa Vylet and Mansoor Noor (botton row), Dina Gillespie and Alissar Gazal (middle row) and Sal Sharah (rear). Featured image: Alissar Gazal, Dina Gillespie, Aanisa Vylet and Mansoor Noor. Photo Credit: Michael Bourchier.
Where the Streets Had a Name is a NSW Secondary School English text. The insights into life in the Arab-Israeli conflict areas, as revealed by teenager Hayaat and her family and friends, make it a worthwhile study text in our peaceful country.
Monkey Baa Theatre Company’s Creative Director and Producer Eva Di Cesare has vividly and economically converted Randah Abdel-Fattah’s text to the stage. It’s passion and revealing truths remain intact as we are gifted with a great big bottle-load of earthy hope, humanity and hard-hitting courage.
An exciting set makes use of imposing cement walls from which evocative flashback videos emerge. There is clever manipulation of set fragments to change from home to street to bus. The family scenes are hectic, sprawling and chaotic across the stage, but can also be focused and tender, as in the scene digesting X Factor together.
It is unavoidable given the subject matter for this script to include the harsh realities of racial hatred, religious vilification and politically incorrect descriptions when especially the reactive young characters’ outbursts are fuelled by the ongoing conflict, deaths of civilians and displacements of families.
The daily routine on stage shows the gunshot-scarred teenage Hayaat’s existence in Bethlehem with her younger brother, parents and grandmother. In the middle of life interrupted by curfews the family rushes to shop, get kids to school and continue their daily routine. Basic wishes of all Palestinians are clearly enunciated by various members of Hayaat’s family. This include ‘land is everything’ and the wish to simply be treated with dignity. Fear and anger are constant companions to all character’s trajectories.
The narrative follows Hayaat and her Christian friend Samy planning a risky trip to Jerusalem to bring back a jar of soil from the city or village where Hayatt’s displaced Sitti Zeynab lived until 1948. Following the poignant exposition of Hayaat’s family’s predicament throughout the play’s beginning, this quest opens up the stage vista to the dangers of a larger, occupied and boundary-divided land.
The remaining three adult actors take parts as soldiers, bus drivers, a peace activist, a refugee child and a local parent with impressive and fluid ease. These are great character-acting vignettes and contrast to the broader and finely chiselled household scenes which begin the drama. A colourful and at times frightening landscape unfolds before us as viewers from a conflict-free country. In our current Australia which debates the ongoing acceptance of refugees, this work shows clearly the nature of devastated countries from which humans flee if they are able.
A highlight of a skilled and colourful cast is Alissar Gazal’s performance. As Sitti Zeynab she is a witty, cheeky matriarch whose accounts of past losses inspire Hayaat to act. Her delivery of profound one-liners regarding no space for despair or not needing to hate the Israelis cut deep into the hearts of listeners from any background. Gazal’s portrayal of a resigned bus driver trying to travel through checkpoints but having his route forever interrupted at the whim of soldiers is a gem of a characterisation. Her quick change to a soldier intimidating the teenagers chills us beyond our Australian experience and sensibilities.
Hayaat (brought to life by Aanisa Vylet) is presented as a fine mix of teenage energy, vulnerability and holder of family pride. She initially presents on the stage with a heartbreaking fidgeting of her hair to hide her facial gunshot wounds. Vylet’s subdued, delayed recall of being shot at by soldiers is quite mesmerising and will shock local teenagers .
The on-stage chemistry between Vylet and her parents is natural and believable. Her interaction with brother Tariq and Christian road-trip buddy Samy (both played with energy by Mansoor Noor) is gorgeous fare which the high school aged audience will love and the wider world should watch.
A key part of the momentum and depiction of family scenes amidst curfews in Bethlehem is Dina Gillespie’s fine consistency as Mama. Each explosive ‘yallah!’ delights us and energises the stage, as does her distracted and dedicated wish to just ‘endure’. Gillespie is supported ably by Sal Sharah in the role of Baba. His crushed aloofness is as well-paced as it is heartbreaking to watch. Sharah’s flip to his role as a young refugee camp boy further illustrates his skill and value to this cast and play.
Regardless of your knowledge level of the Arab-Israeli conflict, or even political views, this version of Abdel-Fattah’s tale of family survival and courage will touch you deeply and begin to educate. No wall can contain this play’s honesty and intersecting humanity. Jump on the bus with your children and see it.
Where The Streets Had A Name opened at Riverside Theatres, Parramatta on August 30. The season continues at the Lend Lease Theatre, Darling Quarter on September 4 and 5.