LONDON, New York, Washington and now Bridport – a controversial new play by Caryl Churchill is in rehearsal for a one off performance at the Bridport Arts Centre. First performed in February this year, and immediately taken up and performed across the world, Seven Jewish Children was written in response to the situation in Gaza in January 2009.
It caused a terrific furore for a play that only lasted 10 minutes and was offered for free at the Royal Court theatre – the theatre acknowledged as the centre of the most exciting and controversial new writing for the stage.
Performing the rehearsed reading in Bridport are Will Bourbon, Cheryl Campbell, Leon Edwards, Gabrielle Hitchin, Ingrid Hull, Kate Lansbury and Lorraine Marston, with Lindsay Ingram directing.
Lindsay said: “This is an extraordinarily challenging piece of theatre. “The drama is only 10 minutes long, but the language is dense and has an intensity that makes it a totally original piece.”
She added: “In response to some of the angry reactions, in my opinion this play is not anti-Semitic in any way, but it does question the morals of Israeli foreign policy at the current time.”
The work contains seven short scenes marking seven moments in Israeli history from the Holocaust via the first intifada to the present day.
In those scenes Israeli adults discuss how they will explain those moments to an absent child. It contains the lines: “Tell her she can’t watch the news.
“Tell her she can watch cartoons.
“Tell her she can stay up late and watch Friends.
“Tell her they’re attacking with rockets.
“Don't frighten her “Tell her only a few of us have been killed...”
The performance on Wednesday, June 3 at 8.45pm will be for free with donations to MAP – Medical Aid for Palestinians.
For more information call the Bridport Arts centre 01308 427183.
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