The Arts Fuse Newsletter, April 2
Coming Attractions, April Short Fuses, reviews of BSO’s “Coltrane: Legacy for Orchestra”, A.R.T.'s “Night Side Songs”, and “Fear No Pharaoh” — How American Jews Accommodated Slavery
From The Editor's Desk:
Is it possible, in America today, to stage a drama about Gaza? In a January 2024 Los Angeles Times column, theater director Guy Ben-Ahron was pessimistic as he recalled the reaction to his 2015 Israeli Stage production (at Arts Emerson) of Ulysses on Bottles, an award-winning 2012 Israeli drama. “I knew it would shake up audiences,” he confesses, “I too was challenged by what the play brought up: Israelis’ daily indifference to the Gaza siege, which their government hoped would weaken Hamas’ rule but instead became a cruel policy of collective punishment.”
The kickback was predictable. “Reaction to the Boston production could be summed up in one comment: great art but unsettling. Tickets sold out for the majority of the run, but my theater company, Israeli Stage, lost funders and audiences. The head of Boston’s Jewish federation never came to another of our productions, and his organization reduced its sponsorship of our work. The consul general of Israel in Boston summoned me to his office and told me to put on other plays instead.” Ben-Ahron goes on to talk about how difficult it would be to produce the play here or in other countries today (given the inevitable charges of antisemitism). He also points to growing self-censorship among Israeli theater artists. “Ulysses on Bottles was the last major Israeli play to reckon with Gaza, and that was 12 years ago.”
But that silence on Gaza may not be as total as Ben-Ahron suggested over a year ago. Syrian-Palestinian Khwala Ibraheem’s one-person play A Knock on the Roof, directed and developed by Oliver Butler, has had successful runs at off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop and at London’s Royal Court Theatre, where Ibraheem’s script (which focuses on a young mother in Gaza who is rehearsing her evacuation drill, fearing an Israeli bomb will fall on her family) and performance garnered highly positive reviews. That pedigree should reassure Boston theaters working up the gumption to stage a script that meets the political/historical moment.
—Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief
Archive: From the Editor's Desk
Coming Attractions through April 14 — What Will Light Your Fire
Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor
Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, television, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
Concert Review: Boston Symphony Orchestra’s “Coltrane: Legacy for Orchestra” — An Evening of Worthwhile Rethinkings
By Steve Elman
With so many cooks, flaws were inevitable. But the effort was noble, and hearing Terence Blanchard’s beautiful trumpet sound in Symphony Hall was a transcendent experience.
Book Review: “Fear No Pharaoh” — How American Jews Accommodated Slavery
By David Mehegan
Richard Kreitner’s narrative shows that, in general, Jews were apparently no more intolerant of slavery than any other Americans – notwithstanding their spiritual and national history of liberation from bondage.
April Short Fuses — Materia Critica
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Theater Review: “Night Side Songs” — A Powerful Musical About the Kingdom of the Sick
By David Greenham
Ace performances help make Night Side Songs a rich and moving experience, compounded by the fact that it is valuable to be in a room full of empathy and love in these trying times.
Arts Commentary: Time to Step Off the “Carousel” of Denial
By Bill Marx
We desperately need plays and musicals — produced by local companies with courage and nerve — that acknowledge that the cancer of autocracy is here, today, and becoming stronger. That is the demand — will any in the arts community answer the call?
Help Keep The Arts Fuse Lit!
Precious few independent online arts publications make it to double digits. Please give us the resources the magazine needs to persevere at an essential cultural task.
Keep the Fuse lit and support our 70+ writers by making a donation.
The Arts Fuse also needs underwriting for the magazine to continue to grow.
And…tell your friends about the in-depth arts coverage you can’t get anywhere else.
Questions, comments, concerns?
Editor-in-Chief
Bill Marx
wmarx103@gmail.com
