Silk Road Theatre Project

On Sunday playwright  Motti Lerner landed at O’Hare airport after 8  hours of flights and layovers from Tel Aviv.  His itinerary for the week he’ll be spending as our guest in Chicago is packed!  There are appearances on WTTW’s “Arts Across Illinois” and Chicago Public Radio’s “Worldview,” he’ll speak with JUF News and Chicago Jewish News, and even appear on an episode of Silk Road’s own CAN-TV series “Silk Road Sojourns.”  But it’s not all about work for our celebrity.  He mentioned to me over cups of Starbucks the other morning that he also hopes to visit a friend who lives in Naperville that he hasn’t seen in 40 years!

The following pictures are from first rehearsal of Mr. Lerner’s play Pangs of the Messiah, which will preview starting March 19 and open March 28.  The shots are paired with quotes from the Meet the Playwright event that was held at the Silk Road office on Tuesday February 3.

David Chack and Motti Lerner

About the topic of the play:

“The set designer (Kurt Sharp)… said last night that a good play is about the worst day in a person’s life.”

“What is the most dangerous political phenomenon that is taking place in Israel?  And this (question) was in 1985…”

About Messianic beliefs:

“It (the play) was not written from hatred.  It was written from fear.”

I think it is very evident in the play that I respect those people very much, but I oppose them totally.”

“This is a messianic movement.  They think there is a possibility to change God’s plans – to accelerate the coming of the messiah.”

“If you believe you can accelerate the coming of the messiah that’s fine, but don’t impose those ideas on the state… we have to negotiate with people, not angels.

Jamil Khoury and Jennifer Green

About being a writer:

“I do not write about remembering events.  I do not write about contemplating events.  I write about events that are present.”

Mr. Lerner described rehearsal of new plays in Israel as being an 8-week process.  “We all agree that the first four weeks we do changes,” he said.

“You can’t write a play if you judge the characters… be very intimate, feel them, love them… to feel that you are in their shoes.  On the other hand, you have to write from critisism… look at them from a distance and know who they are.”

Pangs of the Messiah takes us on a journey to the most fought after piece of real estate in the world, The Holy Land. Israel/Palestine is the birth place of three of the world’s largest religions, the fertile crescent of our past, the stage of many historic and religious events and the current setting to violent unrelenting struggles and blood shed. It is also filled with uncertainty for two groups of people who both lay legitimate claim to this war torn land.

This is the scenic backdrop of our story. In Pangs of the Messiah we have a family. The Berger family could be your typical Orthodox-Jewish family living on a settlement in Judea (the west bank of Israel).The father is a Rabbi, his family and community look to him for guidance and wisdom, the mother is a teacher and leader in the community as well. Like other families around them, the Bergers must make difficult decisions in order to protect what is important to them. In Israel the most important thing to everyone is land. But unlike other families, the Bergers are not willing to compromise their beliefs even if it means standing up and fighting to the bitter end.

Although Motti Lerner’s play is set in the future (2012), Silk Road could not be producing it at a more topical time. In light of the current situation in Gaza, the need for peace and a secure future for Jews and Arabs alike have shown pressing urgency.  In the many attempts to foster a peace agreement in the Middle East, compromise has been considered a necessary obligation. This compromise usually comes in the form of land concessions. For Israel to survive as the Jewish homeland, it believes it must continue to be an independent nation. Therefore the most probable answer to the conflict has been a two state solution.  Two nations, a Jewish state (Israel) and an Arab state (Palestine) co-existing within historic Palestine. To create this solution, some Israeli occupied land must be given back to the Palestinians. We recently witnessed such actions by the Israeli government in 2005 when Israel “withdrew” from Gaza (which it had occupied since the 1967 war) and closed several Jewish settlements in this “peace process”. What happens to the settlers who have built their lives on this occupied land? Do they give it up in the name of peace, or do they fight for their homes? This is the question our Berger family must answer.