Madam, – I would like to make three points about the Caryl Churchill play Seven Jewish Children, which The Abbey has decided to stage.
1. The Abbey is Ireland’s national theatre, and as such, is a public service institution which is rightly held to the highest standards, not just technically and artistically but also in terms of balance, impartiality and responsibility – like the national broadcaster.
2. This play – judging from the actual text, and not just from reviews and reports — is not about Gaza, since it ignores the reality of Hamas, and its self-proclaimed character. You would strive in vain to learn that Hamas remains committed, in principle, (a) to destroy the UN-mandated State of Israel, (b) to impose a Shariah dictatorship on the entire area from the River Jordan to the sea, (c) to reject negotiation and conferences, and (d) to wage Jihad as the only answer. No such positions exist in any Israeli government, or in any of Israel’s political parties.
3. This play is another instalment in the systematic and growing demonisation of Israel — in fact, the very title uses the word “Jewish”, not “Israeli”, which is doubly unjustifiable. It invents a picture of Israeli reality which has absolutely no anchorage in reality — even on an extreme fringe.
I am disgusted that the Abbey has turned the national theatre into an utterly partisan tool of slanted and distorted political propaganda. May I therefore urge the Abbey to immediately cancel all further performances? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Peter Crawley is not quite correct in his view of the Irish reception of Caryl Churchill’s play Seven Jewish Children (Arts, March 11th ).
Here, as elsewhere, the response has been strong and polarised. I echo Jon Ihle’s concerns about the piece, particularly the way it portrays chosenness. Like him, I do not want to cut off a debate with insults.
Churchill is a gifted and sensitive writer. This play, though, was written quickly and out of rage at the Gaza war – a justified rage, in my view. As it should be, it’s an angry piece. But Churchill takes as her subject not the state of Israel or its policies. but the stories Jews tell their children about their people’s place in the modern world. I’m concerned by the gap between the stories Jews tell themselves and the ones that Churchill portrays us as telling.
Set that aside, though. What amazes me is that so few people seem to share my fundamental problem with the piece. Churchill wrote a Gaza play in which only Jewish voices are heard. Why can’t Palestinians speak? If we really want to get beyond a colonialist paradigm, shouldn’t we be doing plays not just for Gazans, but also about them? – Yours, etc,