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PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 28.3 (2006) 103-113



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A State of Innocence

Characters

UM HISHAM QISHTA: Palestinian woman, early fifties, from Rafah.

YUVAL: Israeli soldier, 27, from Tel Aviv.

SHLOMO: Israeli architect, elegant man, fifties.

Place

Something like a small zoo, but more silent, empty, in Rafah, Palestine.

Time

Now.

Set

An almost bare stage, perhaps a few disjointed pieces to make the merest suggestion of a zoo. Or a space that once dreamed it was a zoo.

* * *

(YUVAL stands center stage, dressed as a zookeeper might be dressed, but carrying an Uzi, but casually, as though it were not there. UM HISHAM stands nearby watching him. He is at first not aware of her and speaks to the public.)

YUVAL: I say to him when we're alone, I say: "He whom love touches not, walks in darkness." Do you, my friend? Do you walk in darkness? And then he winks at me. Ever had a porcupine wink at you? It's like the whole symposiums in that flick of a gesture. He knows. Damn it, he knows! And his name is Shadack Winko. An it's a small zoo too, but it's got a big spirit, and only two emus: Tricky Beak and Horton. Tricky Beak only has one eye and her beaks twisted. Her brother is Horton. Horton is . . . dull. Two camels. Dromadary. One's named Fairway and the other is Hoboken Bromwell. Then two ring tailed cats, Buddy and Briggs. Three water Buffalo, Chesterfield, Erkle, and Alfalfa. And one puny monkey: [End Page 103] Dingleberry Dibbit. And damn it, yes, I named every one of them. And my name is Yuval. I'm a grad student in philosophy from Tel Aviv University. My folks came over from New York when they were kids. And we go back to the Big Apple every summer and visit family. But I grew up in the shopping centers and apartment complexes of the middle class suburbs of Tel Aviv.

(UM HISHAM has begun to softly sing a song in Arabic as he speaks.)

But every morning I wake and an animal . . . No. But it's true. A different piece. It's back the next morning but then another part is gone again. There is something I don't know.

(Speaks in Hebrew: "Something is wrong with this zoo. God help us." UM HISHAM's song can now clearly be heard.)

Excuse me but that's against the rules.
UM HISHAM: What is?
YUVAL: Gurgling.
UM HISHAM: I'm not gurgling. I'm singing.
YUVAL: Gurgling. Singing. Same thing. Not allowed in this zoo. Only the animals may sing and gurgle. It's their home after all. Would you like to see Shadack Winko? He's napping but I can wake him for you. Didn't you bring your family to the zoo with you, or are you a selfish woman?
UM HISHAM: Rafah.
YUVAL: I've been to Rafah. I don't discriminate. Everyone is welcome in my tiny zoo. But remember that "the one who comes to kill us, we shall rise early and kill him." All animals here—excepting perhaps Twisty Beak—are morally justified and necessary to our survival. We're always under attack. I'm not afraid of you. Are you a terrorist?
UM HISHAM: Palestinorist. Terrestinian. Palerrorist. I was born in the country of Terrorist. I commit terrible acts of Palestinianism. I eat liberty from a bowl on the Wall. Fanatic. Security. Democracy.
YUVAL: (Interrupts.) Don't get playful with me. You want to throw me in the sea.
UM HISHAM: I just might. But I can't get to the sea. Seventeen and a half checkpoints keep me from it. You don't have tortoises. Why don't you have tortoises?
YUVAL: I'm 27 years old.
UM HISHAM: Where is the ostrich?
YUVAL: I studied two semesters at Oxford.
UM HISHAM: Where is the kangaroo?
YUVAL: (Says in Hebrew:) Rafah is a cesspool. Your mind is sick.
UM HISHAM: Yes. Rafah is a cesspool and my mind...

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