Theater: “The Ally” directed by Itamar Moses
A great play shouldn’t lull you into satisfaction. It should outrage you, challenge your preconceptions, maybe even drain you emotionally. And if there’s a play out there that ticks all those boxes, it’s Itamar Moses’s “The Ally” (Public).
The setting is a campus in an unnamed city, where Asaf Sternheim (Josh Radnor from “How I Met Your Mother”) is an adjunct professor teaching a writing course. He advises his students to write what they know, and Baron, a Black student, writes about the accidental killing of his cousin by the local police. Asaf is impressed by the young man’s gift and a friendship is forged.
Soon Baron approaches Asaf with a petition that condemns the actions of the police. Asaf wants to read it before signing, then discovers a passage calling for the United States to “end all military aid to and impose sanctions on the apartheid state of Israel.” Once he’s back at home with his wife Gwen (Joy Osmanski), Asaf asks, “I don’t know if I’d use the word apartheid?” The son of Israeli immigrants, he begins to have doubts.
At the same time, Asaf is approached by a Jewish-Palestinian alliance student group headed up by Type-A Rachel (Madeline Weinstein) and laid-back Farid (Michael Khalid Karadsheh) who need a faculty member to sponsor a visit from a controversial Israel-critical speaker. She and Farid come to him because he seemed “young, Jewish, progressive, and cool.” How could he resist being called cool? Again, Asaf has questions (“I’m Jewish. We’re taught to ask questions.”) but signs anyway.
This draws the ire of Reuven (the excellent Ben Rosenfield from “Boardwalk Empire”), a PhD candidate in Jewish history and fervent Zionist (“Am I Israeli? No, I’m from New Jersey!” he declares proudly.) He notices Asaf’s name on the list and delivers an enraged diatribe against Asaf for lending his name to those who would categorize Israel as a “colonialist” power.
Still with me? Good. The speaker comes to campus and makes inflammatory remarks about Israel, including, among other things, accusing the country of starting wars with its neighbors to gain territory. This blindsides Asaf and after the lecture, leads to a five-sided discussion between Asaf, Baron, the representatives of the Jewish-Palestinian alliance, and Asaf’s ex (Cherish Boothe), who is Black and firmly on the Israel-as-aggressor side.
The meetup also includes Farid (Michael Khalid Karadsheh), the Palestinian student who we learn grew up dispossessed in Gaza. He makes a passionate speech that depending on your point of view may have you fist-bumping or spewing flames, arguing that “Palestine must be free!”
All this may sound all a bit heavy for theatergoers but it is not. And for anyone who has been following the mess in the Middle East, the two-and-half hours whiz by. (FYI: Moses started writing this long before October 7, and one can only wonder how differently the plot might have unfolded had it acknowledged recent events.)
The cast is super-strong. Radnor is great as the nominally Jewish liberal who finds himself in a genuine quandary. Just as good is Osmanski as Asaf’s wife who wants her husband to sign the petition as part of her administrative job to make nice with the city’s minority community.
Only Itamar Moses (who gave us “The Band’s Visit” and “Bach at Leipzig”) could make such a difficult subject entertaining yet pulse-raising. And while the play may not change your opinion about what’s going on over there, it will help you understand if not necessarily agree with the opposite point of view. Directed by Lilia Neugebauer, and if there’s a busier or more talented director out there these days, I’m not aware of it. Kudos to the Public for their best production in years.
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