ABSTRACT
Art Borreca’s article on ‘Political Dramaturgy’, analysing the dramatic and theatrical aspects of public appearances by politicians, ends with the following consoling thought: ‘If one chooses to argue that politics is theatre […] one is not saying that politics can or will replace the art of the theatre.’ 1 This can also be looked at from the other side. Don’t theatre practitioners — playwrights, directors and actors — try to change the politicians and their politics through criticizing their handling of serious conflicts, particularly national disputes? The answer is of course affirmative. Many playwrights and other theatre people have reacted and continue to react to a disputed political reality by criticizing the politicians for their past blindness or errors and for their present mistaken policies. In the last decade since the War in Lebanon, and particularly against the background of the intifada, it would appear that the Jewish Israeli playwright, the Palestinian playwright and other practitioners of Israeli Arab theatre have not only taken stands following past events, but are also analysing current situations, observing those crises that the politicians were unable to predict before they arose, impartially assessing the chances for a solution, and revealing the obstacles in the opposing camp as well as forecasting future developments in the crisis. These theatre people in effect think and act like politicians.
