If the horror show that is the Israeli/Palestinian conflagration has got you all fired up, then the Public Theater’s stimulating new play The Ally will most certainly give you the tools to wage a cogent, forceful argument, no matter what side you’re on. And that’s despite the fact that Itamar Moses wrote it long before October 7. It’s now set in September and early October, 2023 but presumably just before the Hamas led massacre in Israel because there’s no mention of those horrific events. And while the real-time violence in the region hovers over this work, the age-old conflict that sparked it is enough to keep the play engrossingly relevant, if at times unnecessarily didactic.
The protagonist, Asaf, a writer and professor in an unnamed American college, is, much like the playwright, a liberal Jew with Israeli-immigrant parents. Asaf (Josh Radnor) is extremely bright and engaged in social justice issues. But unlike so many of his students and colleagues, when it comes to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, he has trouble reconciling his personal feelings on the issue. As a Jew he understands the Israeli position to defend itself but as a lefty American, he can’t defend Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. And so when he’s asked to sign a manifesto on campus condemning Israel with the words “apartheid” and “genocide” he is troubled.
The play is very long — two hours forty minutes with an intermission — and that’s because Moses is not only interested in Middle East matters. At the play’s start, we meet Asaf and his wife, Gwen, convincingly portrayed by Joy Osmanski as a Korean-American who’s been hired by the school to coordinate efforts to expand the campus into the local town. It’s a controversial issue that smacks of gentrification.
[Read Frank Scheck’s ★★★☆☆ review here.]
Next, we meet a black student whose cousin was killed in an apparent case of police brutality. Young Baron has joined a campus group that finds a correlation between Black Lives Matter and the plight of the Palestinians. The group has created the aforementioned manifesto and Baron has come to ask Asaf, his favorite professor, to sign it. Asaf is supportive of BLM but he thinks the manifesto’s language condemning Israel is too harsh. Gwen adds some pressure by making it known that his signature would be a help to her cause.
That’s followed by a visit from two more students — Rachel, who’s Jewish, and Farid, a Palestinian — looking for a faculty sponsor to head up a new organization that would allow a controversial Jewish speaker to lecture on campus. His views are pretty extreme but the students make the argument that there must be a place for civil discourse on college campuses, no matter how inflammatory. Asaf agrees to work with them.
Moses offers even more characters (too many?) with divergent views, the plot finally coming to a climactic head when Asaf is reunited with Nakia, his former girlfriend who happens to head up the group that’s behind the manifesto. She and the students confront him about his reluctance to fully back their causes, and while they argue persuasively, it doesn’t sway Asaf enough to win him over.
This is clearly a passion project for Moses whose eloquent writing is a gift to his wonderful company of actors. Each of them is deeply invested in their roles and they speak their speeches — so many of them — with a level of commitment that keeps us engaged despite the excess verbiage.
Elijah Jones is excellent as Baron, a young man who’s suddenly discovered purpose to his life. Madeline Weinstein as the strident Rachel is terrific, sounding like all those kids you knew in school righteously asserting their opinions with absolute certainty that they have all the answers. She is matched by Michael Khalid Karadsheh as Farid. Seemingly reticent at first, he comes on strong in his big moment slamming Asaf as he recounts the devastation his family faced under Israeli occupation. And on the other side, there’s Ben Rosenfield as Reuven, a PhD candidate focusing on Jewish studies, who is equally commanding in his pro-Israeli defense. Cherise Booth stands out as well playing Nakia with the take-no-prisoners conviction of an organizer determined to win at all costs.
Most impressive is Radnor, delivering a phenomenal performance as the conflicted Asaf, stuck in the limbo of seeing all sides. He is a marvel in this difficult role, managing the emotional ups and downs of a man who can’t quite commit to anything strongly enough to satisfy his various allies. On stage in every scene, he carries the bulk of the lines with great flair and fervor. And in director Lila Neugebauer’s fluidly streamlined production marked by a mostly bare stage, it’s hard to take your eyes off him.
Moses writes in the Playbill that he conceived the play seven or eight years ago. It was a time when he was confused about all the contradictory opinions out there and it apparently bothered him that he couldn’t figure out where he stood on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. He decided to put it all into dramatic form. And what he ended up with is a very wordy yet compelling set of ideas that add up to an intellectual pretzel. He presents them so thoroughly, we too, are left in a quandary.
In the last scene, Asaf seeks guidance from a Rabbi, who says to him: “…ideas don’t feel. That’s why they’re appealing. We can stay in our heads forever, turning them, following them to infinity, and be safe because, in your head, you can’t be hurt….the thing you need may not be more words.” And she instructs him to close his eyes and instead “feel” the emotions. It’s welcome advice but after two plus hours of non-stop debate, The Ally desperately needs some trimming. On the plus side, Moses is blessed to have such a talented company bringing all those words to heartfelt life.
The Ally opened February 28, 2024, at the Public Theater and runs through March 24. Tickets and information: publictheater.org
