The Laden Table

Like the long table that dominates the set (designer Courtney Westbrook), this play is also ‘laden’ – with diverse opinions, racial and religious vilification, family values and traditions and strong, passionate characters that articulate their beliefs and emotions in meaningful and judiciously scripted dialogue. It is also ‘laden’ with love surmounts barriers and promises hope.

Three years in the making, the play has brought together six writers in collaboration with an extraordinary collection of Moslem and Jewish Australians who have shared their stories, experiences and ideas. Together they have created a play that they hope will, through the transformative power of theatre, help to break down barriers and promote harmony.

“There are no answers in the play, but we hope that it’s clear that we are all at the same table with so much in common.”

The play entwines two families and their stories. The Fishmans are Jewish. The patriarch, Abe (Geoff Sirmai), is a Holocaust survivor who has recently lost one of his sons in a terrorist attack in Israel. The Ka’adans are Moslem. The matriarch, Zainab (Gigi Sawires), was brought to Australian by her son and daughter-in-law. She is passionate about her religion, and yearns for the home and garden she had to leave when Haifa was attacked.

Her grandson, Mousa, an engineer has recently returned from the Middle East where he met and fell in love with Ruth, an Australian doctor working in Israel – and the granddaughter of Abe Fishman. This is the complication that, in true Greek and Shakespearean theatre style, underlies the plot.

The production truly realises bAKEHOUSE theatre’s double commitment to new and emerging artists, as well as bringing together a large, ensemble cast of diverse backgrounds and experience. But it is no mean feat to direct a play that interweaves two families sitting at the one table but telling two different stories.

Director Suzanne Millar always manages large casts with consummate ease. And this play is no exception. On the intimate KXT stage, she is able to focus on telling eye contact, revealing expressions and sustained gestures that make both the tension and the tenderness in the relationships very clear and poignant. This is helped by the closeness of the table settings – and the creative lighting effect (Benjamin Brockman) of many transparent globes suspended above the table and behind cloudy curtains that frame the stage, as well as the candles that symbolise the traditional family table.

Assistant Director and Dramaturg John Harrison spoke of the hours of collaborative discussion behind the play – the intensity, the depth of thought and learning and the intrinsic joy experienced as the production evolved.

Sirmai and Sawires typify both the zeal and the heartache of those they represent on the stage. They cling to what was good in the past as vehemently as they resent what was bad. Today for them will always be haunted by the past and the anguish it left behind.

Ruth and Mousa symbolise the new generation. Both have grown up with racism. Both have now experienced the effects of bomb blasts in the land of their forbears. It’s left them devastated but still in love. Jessica Paterson and Mansour Noor find all of this conflicting emotion in their tenuous return to families that want to wrap them in traditional values and ties. They reach out, then retreat, their internal battle reflected in strained gestures, anguished expressions and moments of sheer despair.

This is a very moving production. At times it is disturbing and confronting, at others it is touching and hopeful. There are moments of humour and moments of passion and concern. Overall, it is very real, its strong and painfully authentic messages depicted by an enthusiastic, committed cast – and a sensitive, perceptive director.

Carol Wimmer

Photographr: Natasha Narula.