It starts with an explosion, as stories involving Arabs and Jews have a nasty habit of doing. But Amit Lahav and Al Nedjari are not caught up in a political flashpoint: in The Arab & The Jew they make a bravely comic stab at revealing the humanity behind the terrorism headlines.
Lahav (a Jew) and Nedjari (an Arab), who work together as theatre company Gecko, call on the supposed conflict in their backgrounds to forge a telling comment on the futility of religious violence. Opening up in the fallout from a bombing, two strangers, face down in the dirt, celebrate their relief at being alive. Only gradually are the forces that divide them subtly revealed.
Lahav and Nedjari stick an absurdist tongue out at the craziness of prejudice - at one point the pair hurtle around the stage sitting on wheeled desks playing pretend killing games to the strains of You Always Hurt The One You Love - and mine surprising humour from their subject. With gestures, shrugs and the occasional prop (we are in the Mime Festival, after all) they sketch out a diverting portrait of a connection forged in the thorniest of circumstances.
It's a simplistic vision and at times the cartoonish stunts misfire. But as Lahav and Nedjari find themselves pulled apart and caught up in a spiral of violence, it's hard not be haunted by a fleeting glimpse of how the world might have been.
London International Mime Festival: The Arab And The Jew
Lyric Studio
King Street, W6 0QL
