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Playwright praises YSU’s ‘Abraham’
Members of the audience stayed for a post-play discussion.
YOUNGSTOWN — Peace is possible when adversaries develop empathy for each other, but the process cannot begin until they start to talk.
Arabs and Jews have found a spark for dialogue in “How His Bride Came to Abraham.” The play is being presented by Youngstown State University Theater this weekend and next.
Karen Sunde of New York is the playwright. She watched Thursday’s opening night performance at YSU and participated in a post-play symposium, the first in a series with community leaders. About 30 members of the audience stayed for the discussion.
“How His Bride” is set in a hillside shelter in violence-torn southern Lebanon.
Abraham, played by Nathan Beagle, is a wounded Israeli soldier. Sabra, played by Bernadette Lim, is a young Arab fighter. The two stumble across each other and Abe takes Sabra prisoner. Their mistrust and contempt for each other thaws when Sabra begins to dress Abraham’s wounds. Forced to spend the night together, they open up to each other.
Beagle portrays Abe as intelligent and sensitive, a citizen-soldier protecting his loved ones. Lim’s Sabra is youthful but emotionally scarred. She has a heart full of dreams, and a memory full of unspeakable violence.
The war has become personal for Abe and Sabra, although both are innocents.
Sunde spoke to The Vindicator after the performance. She was impressed with the YSU effort. “They got it,” she said. “They did a wonderful job.”
The playwright said her work is about “the death grip that Arabs and Jews are in. They are like two drowning people who are struggling to save themselves, but are instead pulling each other down.”
Abraham and Sabra, of course, represent the Jewish and Arab peoples, respectively. “The vast majority of people on both sides desperately want peace,” she said.
Sunde wrote the play after returning from a trip to the Middle East. Its premiere was in 1992 in New Jersey.
Although she didn’t set out to start a debate, the play’s power was obvious from that first performance. “It got Arabs and Jews together, and afterward, they really wanted to talk,” said Sunde. “They were shocked.”
After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, interest in her play erupted.
The raw emotion and sense of immediacy in “How His Bride” bears an intensity that can only be found on the front line.
The play also has a complexity that reflects the history of the Middle East, whose people have been shaped over the centuries by everyone from the biblical Abraham to Hitler.
Interestingly, Sabra is a Christian. “I wanted to make her someone Americans could identify with,” said Sunde. Making her a Muslim would only reinforce stereotypes, and possibly oversimplify the realities of the region, she said.
UYoungstown State University Theater will present “How His Bride Came to Abraham” at 7:30 p.m. tonight and Oct. 10 and 11; and 3 p.m. Sunday and Oct. 12, in Spotlight Arena Theater (Bliss Hall) on Wick Avenue. Call the box office at (330) 941-3105.