While googling The Band’s Visit on the train to the show, I was surprised to see that it takes place in Israel! An Egyptain band ends up far from their destination due to a mispronunciation. They come to a small Israeli settlement, where they are offered by the Israelis to stay the night. This showed from the start that this play would not deal with the Arab-Israeli conflict. It was a breath of fresh air to enjoy the play without political views being thrown at you.However, on the other hand, it did make the play a bit less true-to-life.

After the show I learned that they did touch a bit on the topic when Tufiq warned his band members (in Arabic) not to do anything bad in Israel so that the Israelis wouldn’t have any political “ammunition” on Egypt. However, I did not understand this during the show, due to  the language barrier. 

Overall the show was very enjoyable. I loved that it was brim-filled with the Israeli and Arab culture. The music, the language, the dress. The ending was super fun, with the whole band coming together to play, making us a double audience: of the broadway show and the show in Petach Tikvah.