It’s 2043 and the Fifth Intifada is about to blow

Daniel Nelson 

The title says it all: Two Palestinians Go Dogging.

It’s a comedy and a tragedy. It’s about the personal and the political., conflict and family, people dying and life continuing. It’s crazy, but it’s about Palestine and Israel, and what’s crazier than that?

Writer Sami Ibrahim has taken on an impossible topic, fearlessly tossed everything into the pot, including hummus, switches from absurdity to didacticism, from sexuality to spirituality, and even attempts to find an ending when no ending is available.

It’s terrific. Of course, some jokes misfire. It’s uneven. It tries to reflect every aspect of the conflict between Israel  and Palestine, or as they say in the region, Jews and Arabs.

Really, that’s all I want to say.  See it.

But my recommendation comes with a warning. Some people might find it untidy or scabrous or an unsuitable topic for humour. Yahoo! Life describes it as “a mess and a bore”, though adds, “but it stays with you.” The Stage reports a  “ponderously slow-moving story about the futility of violence.” The Times goes for “playful but plodding.”

Others, including me, experienced a high voltage, fast-paced, funny, dramatic moving, humane, intelligent play.

It’s set in the mid-2040s, which is another way of saying “intractable”. So does the fact that the Fifth Intifada is about to take place. The setting is a village east of Jerusalem, and it opens with blasting Arab hip-hop, a character reading a note from the playwright, and a joke that isn’t.

It’s also about a family, but it’s a Palestinian family so it’s both extraordinary and ordinary, affectionate and honest, that enjoys sex, has children who have been killed, resists occupation, craves revenge and dreams of wealth and a quiet life. 

Ibrahim is a sort of intellectual wrecking ball, battering everything he touches, from the ruthless dishonesty of heroic myth-making to the resignation of having to speak English.

He’s obviously as confused as the rest of us about Palestine-Israel in and beyond 2040 but he’s managed to write a play that captures some of the elements of that confusion.

He says that first and foremost it’s about characters: “It’s not about educating an audience. It’s about holding an audience’s hand a bit and allowing them to question and challenge their own assumptions … but then there’s a broader thing about giving an audience a fun evening.”

* Two Palestinians Go Dogging is at the Royal Court theatre, Sloane Square, SW1, £12,  until 7 June. Info: 7565 5000/ https://royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/twopalestinians/