Gecko (theatre Company) - The Arab and The Jew

The Arab and the Jew was the Gecko Theatre Company’s third production. The piece was the company’s first step toward political theatre, although unintentional at the beginning. The project began as a “highly personal investigation into their own ethnic and cultural heritage and how that affects their relationship,”. Nedjari and Lahav both state that their cultural heritage has always been a strong influence on their work. “Allel Nedjari and Amit Lahav grew up on opposite sides of the Arab-Israeli divide. Here they celebrate their brotherhood and laugh and cry at their reflections,”. The Arab and the Jew was co-commissioned by the Drum Theatre, the Lyric Theatre, the New Wolsey Theatre, and the Tobacco Factory, all of which are located in the United Kingdom. The venues offered their support on the basis that the company “undertakes audience-development activities during the process of creating a piece: these include workshops, residencies, and work-in-progress performances,”. This was an extremely important aspect in their developmental process. The fact that the piece was presented to a live audience basically every night created a genuine exploration in the creation of the show. The performers shared this personal project with an audience at every point along the path from creation to polishing the piece so that their feedback was a crucial element in the direction the project took. “The Arab and the Jew is both a riot of sound, image and movement and an ambitious dance of reason and conciliation-performed with Gecko’s characteristic exuberance and physical skill,”. This production was not begun as a political piece. Nedjari and Lahav did not even originally do extensive research on current Middle East conflicts. However, through creating this piece, the company took a tentative step toward political theatre and became more aware of the socio-political situation of their company and relationships. The Arab and the Jew did not receive initial Arts Council funding. The financial uncertainty of Gecko and this work meant that all the members had to collaborate and perform various tasks and fill production positions. The group was lucky to have Dryden Goodwin spend three extremely productive days with the company during The Arab and the Jew’s early stages, but had to leave when they were unable to pay him for an extensive period of time.