Dai (enough)

So I might have to eat my words a bit in this post - because I recall just a few postings ago saying that I'm tired of one-person plays and that I could do without them for a while...enter Culture Project's latest play, part of the Impact Festival, called Dai (enough). It's....you guessed it... a one-woman show...and - I really enjoyed it! Throughout the show, Iris Bahr plays ten different characters - all equally fascinating.

The show is set in a Tel Aviv coffee shop and opens with a Bahr's portrayal of a British television reporter. This reporter is producing a segment on Israeli society - and she's come to this coffee shop to try and get some insight. Through her interviews, Bahr portrays "a Latina actress, a second generation Kibbutznik, a German expatriate, a visiting yenta, a religious zealot, a Russian prostitute, a Palestinian intellectual, a female immigrant soldier, a Christian evangelist, and a Dutch rave girl." Between segments there are enormously loud sound effects that portray each of these people...in the coffee shop....as a suicide bomber comes in a I bet you can guess what comes next.

The show's central theme seems to be the bias and the focus on irrelevant details that we see in today's media. This reporter has just wandered into an Israeli coffee shop, yet meets no Israelis - may not be such a surprise, however, as Israel is quite diverse. One could only imagine what her piece would have been like. With Bahr's excellent portrayal of each character - you feel like you've seen a show with a cast of 10. She's so precise with her accents and movements and so simple in the way the scene changes. It's a powerful show, and part of the powerful Impact festival. I hope I see more one actor shows that are this moving....