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by Niki Landau, directed by Paul Lampert

Theatre Passe Muraille, Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto

November 27, 2005

The latest offering in Theatre Passe Muraille’s Stage 3 series takes on the contentious topic of Israeli-Palestinian relations.  Playwright Niki Landau deserves credit for her even-handed portrayal of both sides, each appearing equally compromised.  The main problem is the play’s laboured premise and its inconsistent development.

Territories begins as one-woman show by Sara (Landau), a Canadian Jewish woman living in Israel, but her performance is disrupted by an audience member, Hisham (Sam Khalilieh), who claims that as a Palestinian he has a right to tell his story.  Both actors are talented performers, Landau with a flair for comedy and Khalilieh a versatile master of accents.

As Sara and Hisham debate the Israeli-Palestinian question, they negotiate whether and how they should share the stage.  The playing area thus becomes an all-too-obvious correlative to one piece of land claimed by two nations.  Yet, for this to work we have to buy Sara’s highly unlikely agreement to let Hisham on stage.  Once this is done, Landau’s suddenly switches modes to presenting Sara and Hisham as news anchors to having the two tell their stories in flashback, where, finally, the show is most effective.  Unfortunately, Territories concludes as a symbolic tennis match, with deaths as scoring points, that only trivializes the whole conflict.   

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2005-11-17.

Photo: Sam Khalileh and Niki Landau. ©2005 Theatre Panik.