Practice when the bomb fell into the “roof knock”

There are points in the second half of the new solo play “A Nock on the Roof” about ordinary people bombed in Gaza. Are you seeing the terrible reality and fears that are in a dream in her dreams?

Her daily life is sufficiently troubled. Mariam, drawn with a simple approach by a playwright Khawla IBRAHEEM, fights for his 6 -year -old son, Neur, and is a great way to escape from the apartment building if Israeli's defense forces attack it. I am planning.

“As you can see,” she said in the narrator mode, “Before the two wars, they started using the technique called the” roof knock -on the roof “. It is a small bomb that they fall to warn the actual rocket to evacuate before destroying the building. “

Therefore, Mariam trained in 5 minutes to run as much as possible, and was overwhelmed by the need to be able to put it in the backpack. In addition, it is a heavy sleeper that you need to carry when a bomb comes at night. She puts the practice operation pace with her mother. The mother moves when an unknown war begins.

The Roof Knock, directed by Oliver Butler at the New York Theater Workshop, has a long time before the current war between Israel and Hamas. As the program note explains, the play began in 2014 as a 10 -minute monologue written by Ibrahm, who lives in Golan Heights. Many of the developments were held in October 2023 before the dispute broke out.

The immediate nature of the current war creates this production, moved to London in February and is very timely. Surprisingly, it doesn't always give a dramatic advantage.

Part of the tone challenge of the show is to balance the absurdity of comics and the inseparable darkness. Some are derived from the vanity of ordinary life, even if they are worse by war and broken. The approaching destruction is still dedicated to Mariam and her family.

For the audience, Mariam is friendly and friendly, talks directly to us, and makes fine adjustments to imagine himself with her shoes. If you have to escape, how many underwear do you pack? How far can you run in 5 minutes? (Voice from the crowd in the performance I saw: “I can't run at all.”)

Even if Mariam's anxiety escalates, she keeps the facade.

“I will act normally,” she says. This is a motif.

However, the play that seems to flesh Mariam and the play that seems to shake while all the women are left, we cannot know her very well. I feel that the final gathering of her relationship with her husband studying for her master's degree is inorganic.

In most cases, Ibrahm is her mother, focusing on Mariam. Opening the surrounding city wider will gain welcome weight.

Butler returned to the theater that was a huge success in “what the constitution means for me”, sitting on the stage on the stage, leaving the audience to light it, to connect between the actors and the audience. Try to encourage. The show. Both elements feel like an obstacle to being immersed in Mariam's life. (The mini marset is based on Frank J Oliva, and the lighting is lighted.)

“Roof Knock” wants to bring us close and deepen our understanding. I don't know if it will succeed. However, we know that Mariam is awake or sleeping, but has been trapped in a nightmare.

Roof knock
At the New York Theater Workshop until February 16th. NYTW.ORG. Execution time: 1 hour and 25 minutes.