I struggled to follow the plot of “The Band’s Visit.” The discrepancies between the film and theatre indicate that perhaps the intimate, vulnerable, and humor film was unfortunately clear. In the movie, the story is one of a cluster of people tired of their jaded lives find some rejuvenation in an exciting unexpected encounter, whereas the play stumbled upon culture and language blocks that took away from the character development in my eyes. Dina, a sassy, cynical, Israeli woman seems to have been hurt and finds solace in physicality until the soft spoken, insightful Egyptian conductor, Tewfik, opens her eyes to music and what helpless love looks like. Although Avrum’s wife is killed off in the play, his love story with her still shows remnant of tired love, and his son and daughter-in-law’s struggle to bring back that which is lost. The ice skating scene is an attempt at building relationships, and the endless phone wait brings us all hope that she calls. But the characters were underdeveloped, and as a result of a stark focus on setting and the differing ethnicities, I felt the meaning of the play was greatly diminished.