I was extremely anxious and excited to see how Israel Horowitz would interpret his three plays, but regrettably by the end of the night I was extremely disappointed by how predictable “Beirut Rocks” and “The Indian Wants the Bronx” were. “What Strong Fences Make” confused me entirely.
In the first play, I couldn’t help but think of how weak the play would be had the two white antagonists been of different ethnicity such as Asian, Black or Hispanic. Obviously the over riding theme was racism and hatred that is regrettably still prevalent in 2010. What I can’t get over was the undertone of oppressor and oppressed. “Racist” is the epithet of minorities, and of course the audience would be sympathetic towards the poor immigrant Indian’s circumstances. As mayor Ed Koch once said in so many words, “sometimes criminals are just rotten and bad people. They do not commit the things they do because a need for wealth, or any other external factors.” While watching the first play, I just saw two hoodlums or troublemakers causing trouble; I see things like this going on everyday as I walk the streets of New York. These types of kids don’t hold grudges, they just haven’t been brought up with the right morals. The one thing I could commend the two white actors on was their diction and high quality acting skills, their accents reminding me of punks from the Jets in West Side Story.
The acting in “What Strong Fences Make” was uninspiring and lackluster. The characters had almost no physical interaction; after there initial entrances they moved but a few feet from side to side for the whole performance. It also seemed as though this situation would be totally unrealistic in real life in the Middle East. If a suspicious looking character approached a military checkpoint in real life, there would be no time for dialogue. The American soldier defending the area would be much more impassioned and much more ready with his or her trigger finger. Instead, we have two characters reminiscing about times past. Their voices were muffled due to poor acoustics of a theater that wasn’t the most well designed compared to ones I’ve been in, and overall the play did not help dig deeper into American/insurgent relations.
The lighting, sound and set choice was the best in “Beirut Rocks” and was finally up to par. The bed and props were dusty and dingy, and the loud sound effects of bombs flying over head finally transported me to the Middle East. I was disappointed by how I could not favor any character, the Jew or The Palestinian. Both had traits that were ignoble and distasteful. Even though I was sympathetic towards the girl when she was forced to lift up her dress, I didn’t think it was totally crazy. In stressful times the adrenaline goes up and everyone returns to their primal survivalist instincts. It was unfortunate, but not 100% out of line.
Israel Horowitz is well intentioned in attempting to act as a social critic about race relations, but he seemed to be inferring many things. The stories seem to have little personal significance and historical context and I would not use him as a knowledgeable expert on social political relations. He has probably not been in any of the aforementioned situations, and therefore can not explain to my satisfaction these circumstances within the plays as well as someone such as an American soldier, a Middle Eastern Woman, or A Jewish Man.
