The Fever Chart: Three Short Visions of the Middle East

Naomi Wallace

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781559363372
• eBook ISBN: 9781559366137
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Teatro americano

“Naomi Wallace commits the unpardonable sin of being partisan, and, the darkness and harshness of her work notwithstanding, outrageously optimistic. She seems to believe the world can change. She certainly writes as if she intends to set it on fire.”—Tony Kushner

Naomi Wallace, the rare writer who combines lyrical theatricality with political ferocity, turns her sight to the Middle East, with a new triptych for the stage. Vision One, A State of Innocence, is set—as the playwright describes, in “something like a small zoo, but more silent, empty, in Rafah, Palestine. Or a space that once dreamed it was a zoo”—and features a Palestinian woman, an Israeli architect, and an Israeli soldier. Vision Two, The Retreating World, is of an Iraqi bird keeper from Baghdad and his address before the International Pigeon Convention. Vision Three, Between this Breath and You, takes place after hours in the waiting room of a clinic in West Jerusalem, where a Palestinian father confronts the nurse’s aide, a young Israeli woman, about the meaning of the loss of his son and the impact it had on her life. These multifaceted works explore the urgency and complexity of the Middle East’s political landscape, through the voices and bodies of the people who inhabit it.

Naomi Wallace is a poet and playwright from Kentucky, who currently resides in England. Her numerous awards include the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. Her plays, including One Flea Spare, In the Heart of America, and Trestle at Pope Lick Creek, are produced throughout the United States and around the world.

The Fever Chart

Three Visions of the Middle East

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The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East is based on true events.

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PRODUCTION HISTORY

Patrick Morris of Menagerie Theatre Company and Golden Thread Productions were instrumental in the development of The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East.

The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East was developed in Hartford Stage’s 2006 Brand:NEW Festival. It was first workshopped at Mill Mountain Theatre’s Norfolk Southern Festival of New Works, under the direction of David Gothard. A State of Innocence (Vision One) was commissioned by 7:84 Theatre Company of Scotland. Between This Breath and You (Vision Two) was written for the Hotbed Festival in Cambridge, U.K. The Retreating World (Vision Three) was commissioned by the McCarter Theatre Center.

The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East was produced in 2008 at New York’s Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Mara Manus, Executive Director) as part of the Public Lab series. It was directed by Jo Bonney, with scenic design by Rachel Hauck, costume design by Ilona Somogyi, lighting design by Lap Chi Chu, sound design by Christian Frederickson; the production stage manager was Christina Lowe. The cast was:

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Vision One: A State of Innocence

UM HISHAM QISHTA	Lameece Issaq
YUVAL	Arian Moayed
SHLOMO	Waleed F. Zuaiter

Vision Two: Between This Breath and You

MOURID KAMAL	Waleed F. Zuaiter
TANYA LANGER	Natalie Gold
SAMI ELBAZ	Arian Moayed

Vision Three: The Retreating World

ALI	Omar Metwally

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Vision One

A State of Innocence

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CHARACTERS

UM HISHAM QISHTA	Palestinian woman, from Rafah, late forties
YUVAL	Israeli soldier, from Tel Aviv, twenty-seven
SHLOMO	Israeli architect, elegant man, fifties

PLACE

Something like a small zoo, but more silent, empty, in Rafah, Palestine. Or a space that once dreamed it was a zoo.

TIME

2002.

NOTE

Characters often do not look directly at one another. It is as though they can see one another without eye contact.

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Um Hisham enters, very focused. She takes a scarf and carefully, methodically, wraps her head in the scarf. She adjusts it until it’s right; she is then ready for the vision to begin. Now she looks at Yuval.

Yuval is dressed as a zookeeper might be dressed, but still military, cleaning a large, simple cage, which might look like scaffolding. His uzi hangs near by. Um Hisham stands watching him at work. He is at first not aware of her. He speaks to us, the public:

YUVAL: I say to him when we’re alone, I say: “He whom love touches not, walks in darkness.” Do you, my friend? Do you walk in darkness? And then he winks at me. Ever had a porcupine wink at you? It’s like the whole symposium’s in that flick of a gesture. He knows. Damn it, he knows! And his name is Shadack Winko. And it’s a small zoo too, but it’s got a big spirit, and only two emus: Tricky Beak and Horton. Tricky Beak has only one eye and her beak’s twisted. Her brother is Horton. Horton is . . . dull. Two camels. Dromedary. One’s named Fairway and the other is Hoboken Bromwell. Then two ring-tailed cats, Buddy and Briggs. Three water buffalo: Chesterfield, Erkle and Alfalfa. And one puny monkey: Dingleberry Dibbit. And damn it, yes, I named every one of them from the scraps I picked up when we go back to the Big Apple every summer and visit family.

(Um Hisham has begun to softly sing a song in Arabic.)

But every morning I wake and an animal . . . No. But it’s true. A different piece. It’s back the next morning but then another part is gone again. There is something I don’t know.

(He speaks in Hebrew: “Something is wrong with this zoo. God help us.” Um Hisham’s song can now clearly be heard.)

Excuse me but that’s against the rules.

UM HISHAM: What is?

YUVAL: Gurgling.

UM HISHAM: I’m not gurgling. I’m singing.

YUVAL: Gurgling. Singing. Same thing. Not allowed in this zoo.

UM HISHAM: You don’t have tortoises. Why don’t you have tortoises?

YUVAL: Only the animals may sing and gurgle.

UM HISHAM: Where is the ostrich?

YUVAL: It’s their home after all.

UM HISHAM: Where is the deer? Where is the kangaroo?

YUVAL: Would you like to see Shadack Winko? He’s napping but I can wake him for you.

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UM HISHAM: No. Let Winko sleep. And you should sleep, too.

YUVAL: Sleep? I’m the boss of this zoo. I need to stay alert.

UM HISHAM: Go away, Yuval.

YUVAL (Threatening): Hey. How do you know my name, lady? Remember that (Quotes) “The one who comes to kill us, we shall rise early and kill him.” I’m not afraid of you. Are you a terrorist?

UM HISHAM (Playfully): Palestinorist. Terrestinian. Palerror-ist. I was born in the country of Terrorist. I commit terrible acts of Palestinianism. I eat liberty from a bowl on the Wall. Fanatic. Security. Democracy.

YUVAL: Don’t get playful with me. You want to throw me in the sea.

UM HISHAM: I just might. But I can’t get to the sea. Seventeen and a half checkpoints keep me from it.

YUVAL (In Hebrew): Would you shut up, woman, and leave me alone?

UM HISHAM: I would like to leave you alone.

YUVAL: You understand Hebrew?

UM HISHAM: How is your mother?

YUVAL: She doesn’t like the zoo.

UM HISHAM: I’ve got something that belongs to her.

YUVAL (Laughs): I don’t think so, lady.

(Um Hisham removes her scarf, leaving it draped around her shoulders.)

UM HISHAM: I came to this zoo a few years ago. There was a small swimming pool.

(She looks for the place where the pool was, then finds it.)

Yes. It was here. I brought my daughter, Asma, here to swim.

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YUVAL: There is no swimming pool here. Did you get a ticket when you came in?

UM HISHAM (Discovering another spot): There were two slides here, near the bird aviary.

YUVAL: How do you know my mother?

UM HISHAM: I know it’s hard to believe, looking at it now, but it was beautiful here.

(Shlomo hurries on, carrying a clipboard and a wooden box that holds his surveying equipment. He is a little confused by his surroundings, but puts down the box and begins to make notes. He gestures to Yuval.)

SHLOMO: You. Who are you? You in charge here?

YUVAL: Yes, sir.

SHLOMO: This place is full of holes. A veritable security cluster-fuck as we say in the business.

YUVAL: What business?

SHLOMO: Anyone else here? Just the two of you then. (Makes notes) Nothing more sacred. Mother and son. Like the land and the settler—though the one’s from Brooklyn . . . Don’t get me started!

UM HISHAM: He is not—

YUVAL: She is not—

SHLOMO: An architect. But I am. And an architect is naturally a philosopher, (To Yuval) as you wish to be.

YUVAL: Yeah. I’m a grad student in philosophy from Tel Aviv University. How do—

SHLOMO: And this zoo is a disgrace to Zionist architecture.

UM HISHAM: My first house was destroyed in 1967—

SHLOMO: Was your house part of the Wall and Tower model?

UM HISHAM: No.

SHLOMO: I thought not.

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(He proceeds to help Um Hisham onto the wooden box. He then links arms with Yuval, forming a “wall” around her “tower.”)

The Homa Umigdal, the Wall and Tower, was our very first architectural model for the family home. Homa Umigdal! Homa Umigdal! Homa Umigdal!

YUVAL: He’s mad.

SHLOMO: This model was the cradle of the nation, the very nest and egg that made the desert bloom.

(He and Yuval slowly rotate around Um Hisham.)

Circle the wagons, up with the periscope! Homa Umigdal—a prayer, a rhyme. And ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• OTHER WORKS BY NAOMI WALLACE
• Dedication
• The Fever Chart - Three Visions of the Middle East
• One Short Sleepe - A Ten-Minute Play
• Further Reading
• Copyright Page