The Israel Horovitz plays were intense and emotionally powerful. The first play, “The Indian Wants the Bronx” tried to express the negative effects of boredom and peer pressure. When given the opportunity, many bored people turn to violence in an attempt to entertain themselves. The Indian in the play represents the small, seemingly inferior person, under the wrath of a larger, much more powerful bully. Although there is really no set storyline or direction to the play, it is clear that there is a definite social caste system in place. Horovitz enforces the idea of the Indian being weaker by making him unable to understand the torment he is being put through. In doing this, he gives Murph and Joey the knowledge that they are able to take advantage of the Indian much easier. Many viewers are left wondering, what was the point of this play? To be honest, there wasn’t much of one, other than to show the brute nature of humans and the simplicity of human minds when reduced to savagery. The final scene shows the deranged state of the Indian after bearing the torturous acts of the two young scandalous boys. The staging of the act was not very believable because there would most likely be more people waiting for a bus, and if there had been more people, the boys would probably not have tortured the Indian in such a way. Also, if the play was based on fact, the son of the Indian would have been worried about his father, wondering what was taking so long, but in the play, nothing was heard of the son’s worries. Some aspects of the play made a lot more sense than others
The second play, “What Strong Fences Make” was very confusing, because the actors were very monotonous about their roles in this particular play, and rather than projecting their voices to the audience, they were speaking while facing each other, therefore lowering the audibility of the performance. However, I took the liberty of reading the actual play online, and I felt captivated by the emotional struggle of both characters. The reader can feel Itzhak’s inner turmoil at the loss of his children and his desire to avenge their deaths. The communication between Itzhak and Uri is overwhelming because of the almost indifference Uri had towards Itzhak and the disgust and hatred Itzhak felt towards Uri. After reading, the plot was very intense and intriguing, and I feel that if the actors had performed better, the play would have been much more exciting. Personally, I would have enjoyed the play a lot if it had been acted out better. The absence of motion in the play was another negative aspect of the performance, because it made it boring and seemingly uneventful. There was no change in the lighting, and with the exception of a few loud “booms” there was no change in the atmosphere at all. The performance was very horrible because of this and could have been much better if there had been more movement and emotion in the play as well as a louder projection of voices and exaggeration of feelings.
“Beirut Rocks,” I believe, was the most powerful of the three plays. It had many profound messages, and was very emotional for all ethnic groups. To the Jewish people in the audience, it was shocking to hear Nasa say that she wanted to kill Benjy’s family because she was angry with the Jews. Benjy retaliated against Nasa, claiming that she was probably harboring a bomb under her clothes. In violating her, the audience was thrown into shock, feeling the extremity of the action. The way the four teenagers were brought together was out of sheer coincidence, in a time of panic and fear. Because of this, they should have been brought closer together, but because of Benjy and Nasa’s different cultures and beliefs, they automatically clashed. Their ferociously opposing opinions caused much stress and anxiety to the already overly dangerous and frightening situation. The proximity of the actors to each other was a very important part in the play because if they had been farther apart, they would not have had to interact so much with each other. The onstage lighting was perfect for the setting, and the sound effects were also highly effective. In the end, this was probably the best of the three plays because of the emotion it caused to surface and the horrific truth of what happens during war times. The plot, the actors and the staging for this play were much better than those of the other two.
