Yousef Sweid’s one-man show, directed by his long-time collaborator Isabella Sedlak, is a tall glass of cold water in Berlin’s desert of Arab representation. That it’s otherwise standard Gorki fare – the humourous autobiography of a minoritised Wahlberliner – doesn’t make it any less refreshing. In it, Sweid recounts his life from childhood to the present as a Hebrew-speaking Christian Palestinian.
there is… a refusal to disavow shared humanity, whether after divorce or October 7.
We hear about his childhood experiences in Haifa, including his first encounter with racism, the development of his split consciousness, his penchant for Ashkenazi Jewish women, his two divorces from Ashkenazi Jewish women. Sweid’s performance, slipping seamlessly into the voices of people throughout his life, insists on extending empathy.
The arc of the piece is well-structured, as characters recur with surprising power. A favourite schoolteacher from his infancy, one who championed Palestinian identity, is met again in Ramallah as a young adult but then, not too long after, assassinated. The boy who first called Sweid a “dirty Arab” is arrested smuggling drugs from Lebanon into Israel – and Sweid encourages us to empathise with his difficult upbringing.
There are moments of caricature and shlock, but there is most of all care – a refusal to disavow shared humanity, whether after divorce or October 7. It’s a work that hydrates the heart and conscience
- Studio Я, Hinter dem Gießhaus 2, Mitte, Jun 11, details.
