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'Masked' explores drama of Palestine

By Matt Windman | amNewYork Theater Critic

5:19 PM EDT, August 2, 2007

Sanjit DeSilva, Arian Moayed and Daoud Heidami in 'Masked,' a play by Ilan Hatsor, directed by Ami Dayan.

Once we sat down and opened up our program at "Masked," a new Off-Broadway play about three Palestinian brothers, we were greeted by a warning from the director: "'Masked' is not a pro-Palestinian play. It is not a pro-Israeli play. Please put aside preconceptions and political doctrines."

Dramas about the contemporary Palestinian experience have become a hot item for Off-Broadway. One of the theater¹s biggest news items last year involved New York Theatre Workshop¹s cancellation of "The Notebooks of Rachel Corrie,²" based on the activities of the American pro-Palestinian protester, which was finally performed in October. Other works have included "Sixteen Wounded," which played a short run on Broadway, and "The Black Eyed," which just opened at NYTW.

"Masked" has an unusual story of preconception. It was written in 1990 in Hebrew by Ilan Hatsor, who was only 18 at the time, and stands out as a drama written by an Israeli about a group of Palestinians that has since been performed for both Israeli and Palestinian audiences. Though the play¹s events are set in 1990, its plot involves a melodrama that is more dependent on the story of its characters than on the neighboring political antagonisms of the region.

Director Ami Dayan¹s warning is pretty accurate. "Masked²" has little, if anything, to say politically. Rather, it is an intimate, straightforward, very short three-character drama set in the back room of a West Bank butcher shop. Essentially, one brother accuses his sibling of being an Israeli spy, that brother accuses the other of going too far with the Palestinian resistance movement, and the youngest brother looks on in despair and helplessness.

One could take away from the play a sense of how loyalty to a fierce political cause can drive a family apart, but "Masked" was written with the touches of a potboiler melodrama and action film, stuffed with surprise, betrayal, violence and so on. Luckily, however, the small cast works tremendously well together, bringing the play more appeal than it would have on paper.

Masked DR2 Theatre, 103 East 15th St, 212-239-6200, $35.50-55.50. Tues 7pm, Wed-Fri 8pm, Sat 4 & 8pm, Sun 4pm. Open Run.