'Desert Sunrise' at Theater For The New City

Desert Sunrise, written and directed by Misha Shulman, extends its run at Theater For The New City to the 21 May 2006, the show was to close on the 23 Apr 2006.

Desert Sunrise describes a natural, simple bonding by people who are supposed to be afraid of each other. It is a drama the arises out of a chance encounter between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian man of this region.

The play uses English, Hebrew and Arabic dialogue between the three characters and is interspersed with choral odes, performed by onstage musicians and adapted by Shulman from various translations of Aeschylus' "Agamemnon." It also employs Indonesian shadow techniques that are shared with Egyptian puppetry.

Desert Sunrise's cast features: Aubrey Levy (Canadian) as the Israeli soldier, Alice Borman, Jared Miller, Haythem Noor, Yifat Sharabi and Morteza Tavakoli.

The production has set design by Celia Owens and lighting design by Itai Erdal and choral odes scored by Israeli musician Yoel Ben-Simhon .

Author/director Misha Shulman says, "Everything in the Middle East is fuzzy and you don't know where the truth is, but with the cave dwellers, everything is crystal clear. There are layers of oppression here, but that of the Israelis is clearest. It's like everything that's going on the West Bank, magnified to the extreme. On the one hand, there is an extreme selfishness, on the other, an unwillingness to turn to violence."

The production is influenced and inspired by Ta'ayush (www.taayush.org), a peace movement that means living together in Arabic.