Dualidarity – a phonecall under fire

Shortly after October 7 a German producer calls the Israeli playwright Avishai Milstein. It’s about a major project, they are planning a solidarity evening at her theatre. And she has good news for him: the artistic part of the evening will include a scenic reading of one of the author’s texts.

Due to rocket fire Milstein sits in the shelter of his Tel Aviv apartment during the call and cannot quite understand everything the producer says. But he is pleased by her interest and solidarity. She corrects him: it’s not about solidarity. It’s about ‘dualidarity‘ – that is, solidarity with both sides. An Imam is scheduled to speak at the planned evening, as is the chairman of the local Jewish community. The producer has just one small problem: if they read a text by him, the Israeli author, they also need a text by a Palestinian author. Preferably one from Gaza. Couldn’t Milstein perhaps help her to quickly find one? Otherwise, the whole evening wouldn’t work…

No contemporary playwright writes about German perspectives on Israel with as much wit and precision as Avishai Milstein. Commissioned and staged by Institut für Neue Soziale Plastik, this mini-drama rapidly develops from a comic text to a disturbing assessment of the German theatre world’s cold reactions toward Israeli society following October 7.

Author: Avishai Milstein
Director: Benno Plassmann
Literary Consultant: Stella Leder
Stage design: Matthias Nebel
Production: Mia Alvizuri Sommerfeld
Assistant director: Noam Frank
With: Anabel Möbius and Ariel Nil Levy