La Mama: The Cool Room by Sivan Gabrielovich

The Cool Room by Sivan Gabrielovich. Directed by Deborah Leiser-Moore. At La Mama, 205 Faraday Street Carlton, until August 18, 2002.

Perhaps the most shocking moment in this anarchic and startling play comes when mention is made of peace in the Middle East; when someone dares to use the phrase "when peace comes..." It seems ludicrously unlikely that the cycle of violence will ever be interrupted.

But for one ex-pat Israeli, a young playwright who came to Australia when she was 21, Australia has given her room to dream. Room to imagine that reconciliation might just be possible. It has also given her the opportunity to hear the voice of the "enemy". And to see traditional foes living in relative peace.

Taking the 1982 invasion of southern Lebanon as her starting point (and making subtler references to the Israeli bombing of PLO headquarters in West Beirut in July of the previous year in which 300 civilians were killed) Sivan Gabrielovich locks two men in a cool room here in Australia.

Her protagonists -- a Lebanese Arab and an Israeli Jew -- have both fled their war-torn homelands to take refuge in Australia. Though one has apparently employed the other, their truce is uneasy. Now, together, they find their lives threatened. Senselessly.

They have nothing in common but their anger, their agony, their displacement and their mortal flesh. Not to mention their music. And their food. (One of the most delightful exchanges comes when Dror hails felafel as Israel's national food, to which Marwan snaps: you stole that from us too.)

The Cool Room is a brutal play, deeply and calculatedly offensive. It sets out to ruffle feathers -- in the same way that shooting at magpies with a 303 rifle would -- and succeeds. Yet I can't help but feel that Gabrielovich wanted to make more of the abattoir setting, wanted to make it more of a spatter-fest. Yet even as it stands, throwing plastic chops around and reenacting the aftermath of a suicide bombing was more than some audience members could stomach.

This theatrical missile could do with some laser-guidance, but it more than makes up for any lack of precision with its explosive force, its coarseness and its brutal impact. Having Matthew Crosby and Rodney Afif face-off as Dror and Marwan is this production's greatest asset.

Crosby is always a compelling and intense presence, with an awesome voice. Afif, however, matches him -- point for point -- in what is, in my mind, his best performance to date.


An edited version of this review was published in the Herald Sun on August 9, 2002.