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Telegraph
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Inside the return of the most controversial play of the 21st century
To say that the 2009 premiere of Seven Jewish Children, Caryl Churchill's play that covered decades of Israeli history in 10 minutes, caused controversy is an understatement. Subtitled A Play for Gaza, it was hastily written in response to Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli military's incursion into the Palestinian territory shortly after Hamas took power. As many as 1,400 Gazans died, as did 13 Israelis during the three-week conflict. Churchill wrote seven gnomic scenes – starting with the Russian pogroms of 1903 and the Holocaust, then onto the foundation of Israel and up to the present – in which Jewish adults debate how much an unnamed and unseen female relative should or should not be told about violence in the world. Each line in the poetical script starts with 'Tell her' or 'Don't tell her'. The first scene includes the line 'Don't tell her they'll kill her' as, we deduce, the family is hiding from persecution. Later, at a time of heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions, the debate becomes 'Tell her they want to drive us into the sea / Tell her they don't'. By the end of the play, however, Churchill portrays one of the Israeli speakers as bloodthirsty and vengeful: 'Tell her we're the iron fist now, tell her it's the fog of war, tell her we won't stop killing them till we're safe.' Publicising the play at the time, Churchill said: 'Israel has done lots of terrible things in the past, but what happened in Gaza seemed particularly extreme.' The backlash was swift, and the play is perhaps the most controversial mounted this century. Following its debut at London's Royal Court, Seven Jewish Children was widely criticised for being anti-Semitic. Howard Jacobson, the Booker Prize-winning novelist, wrote that Churchill's 'wantonly inflammatory piece' was an example of 'Jew-hating pure and simple' because, he said, in it 'the Jews drop in on somewhere they have no right to be, despise, conquer, and at last revel in the spilling of Palestinian blood'. Dozens of prominent British Jews – including Dame Maureen Lipman and Lord Janner – signed a letter to The Telegraph saying that the work 'demonises Israelis by reinforcing false stereotypes' and 'portrays Israeli parents as inhuman triumphalists who care little about anything except their children's feelings, and who teach them that Arabs are subhuman and must be hated'. The BBC, meanwhile, declined to adapt the play for radio, citing its need to remain impartial. The Royal Court had caused similar controversy in 1987 by programming Perdition, the Ken Loach-directed play based on an Israeli controversy in which a Hungarian-born Jewish lawyer was accused of collaborating with the Nazis. The play was cancelled the day before its first preview. Churchill denied the claims of anti-Semitism, and said that her play 'shows the difficulty of explaining violence to children. In the early scenes, it is violence against Jewish people; by the end, it is the violence in Gaza'. The controversy has had a very long tail. In recognition of her life's work, Churchill was named the recipient of the European Drama award by the Schauspiel Stuttgart, one of Germany's foremost theatres, in April 2022 but it – and the €75,000 (£65,000) prize – was withdrawn in November that year after the jury said it had been 'made aware of previously unknown information'. This included Seven Jewish Children – which can 'be regarded as being anti-Semitic' – and Churchill's support for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Churchill, now 86, specified when she wrote the play that it can be read or performed anywhere, so long as performances did not charge an admission fee but that a collection be made for the Medical Aid for Palestinians charity. A new adaptation of the play, in the form of a short film by a 23-year-old Israeli-American, is sure to stir up the old controversies, especially given the violence in the Middle East over the past 18 months. Omri Dayan, who has been based in London for the past five years, became aware of the play on a visit to Israel shortly after Churchill's award was rescinded and, he says, 'I immediately felt drawn to it and I just couldn't get it out of my mind'. 'It was a surprise for me in many ways, because my Judaism, or me being Israeli, has never touched my work,' Dayan tells me. 'I've worked with my family before, and it's part of who I am, but I've never wanted to do something about that, because I felt that it, in some ways, would box me in, and it just didn't feel relevant to my art, and that suddenly this was because I am Jewish and because I am the son of Israeli immigrants this is a story I want to tell.' Brian Cox, the Succession star who is never knowingly understated, serves as executive producer. Dayan says the actor, who is a long-standing supporter of Medical Aid for Palestinians, will help encourage people to watch the film – and 'he won't be scared of the controversy around it'. Dayan, a graduate of the MetFilm School in West London, is fully aware of how controversial the play is but says that the criticism of it is misplaced. 'I think that there's a pattern of anything that is critical of the Israeli government being called anti-Semitic, and it builds a smoke screen behind which we can't hear voices of opposition inside Israel and outside Israel,' he says. 'And I think that the way that the world reacted to this play is a prime example of that. 'Unfortunately, anything that touches on Israel and Palestine is political,' Dayan adds. '[The play is] completely about empathy and about love and understanding and yet it is political, it's showing how a nation that was formed from a place of trauma and survival can, as a society, develop a mentality of hatred towards another. That is inherently political.' Others disagree. 'It is striking that, at a time of surging antisemitism, people would feel the need to adapt a play that was accused of just that when it was first performed,' says Stephen Silverman of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, Britain's leading charity dedicated to exposing and countering anti-Jewish hatred. 'There's a reason that the blood libel has been so enduring: because so-called artists keep perpetuating it. No wonder that, according to our polling, less than half of British Jews feel welcome in the UK. Cultural institutions have a societal responsibility not to promote division and hatred.' Dayan shot the film in the summer of 2023 with a crew of 50 – which he says included Israelis and Palestinians – who volunteered their time. The cast includes Dayan's father, Ami, and his grandmother, the Israeli actress Rivka Michaeli. Although many may see Dayan's film as a response to the events on and after October 7, 2023, before the credits roll a line flashes on screen to clarify that it was made before the Hamas terror attacks and Israel's retaliation in Gaza. Dayan was in the editing room on that fateful day, and was so moved that he 'needed to step away for a little bit from the edit'. 'I needed time to… because I don't want the film to be a reaction to October 7, it's not, we didn't make it as a reaction, and I don't want to take advantage of the trauma,' he says. 'And yet it's a piece that is very relevant to how we take trauma and don't let it infect our futures in that sense, and history repeating itself in that sense. 'I can't imagine the pain and the horror. I was not in Israel, I never lived in Israel and I feel that pain and that horror,' Dayan adds. 'I know people there who know people who were killed on October 7, and who have friends and family who are hostages. It's unimaginable that trauma, and the generational impact that trauma will have. But the film is about taking these moments and rather than turning them into hatred, turning them into empathy for the other, and seeing the reaction to October 7 play out in a completely opposite way, and seeing that trauma being used to justify hatred to the other, is exactly what I'm hoping we can start stepping away from.' Dominic Cooke, the Royal Court artistic director when the play premiered in 2009, says that Dayan's film is a 'terrific achievement' and 'catches the visceral power of the original play whilst finding a fresh visual form to express it on screen'. He adds: 'Caryl's vision of an Israel trapped in cycles of trauma is sadly more pertinent now than ever. I hope Omri's film gets to be seen by a wide audience thereby stimulating debate and understanding about the roots of the current disaster in Gaza.' As per Churchill's wishes, cinemas cannot charge for entry to see the film. A fully-booked premiere will take place at the Prince Charles Cinema in London's Soho on March 31, with a charity collection. It will be made available for free on YouTube the following day, with other screenings planned both in the UK and America. Dayan is fully aware that his film will spark outrage. 'This is something I ask your readers: people will have preconceptions about this. So many people who are against the film are against the film because they've read something about the play. They haven't seen the play, they haven't read the text, they haven't seen the film,' he says. 'I ask people to watch first and then to discuss, put aside the preconceptions for a moment and watch the film. 'If you think that there's a moment in the film where the characters aren't treated with understanding, with humanity, with love, with respect, then tell me, because I think that every word of this play comes from a deep and true understanding, not only of history, but also of psychology, and it comes from empathy, and it comes from love.'
The Guardian
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Hopeful or ‘hate-fuelled'? Film of controversial play about Israel gets London premiere
The premiere of Caryl Churchill's short play Seven Jewish Children at the Royal Court theatre 16 years ago proved to be one of British theatre's most controversial opening nights. Audiences were immediately divided by the British playwright's deliberately stripped-back treatment of Jewish generational fear and Israel's history of conflict. The public attacks it prompted have echoed on. In 2022, Churchill was deprived of the lifetime European Drama award she had received earlier in the year, due to criticism of the play and her pro-Palestinian campaigning. Now the play has been filmed and is to open officially in London at the end of this month, at a time when the Middle East has been rocked by devastating violence and, in Britain, allegiances are more contested than ever. Behind the film is London-based Omri Dayan, a 23-year-old US-Israeli director, who said this weekend that he was 'braced' for all the contention to come, but was drawn to make his version 'not because of its politics, but because of its humanity – for me it is a family story.' Like the play, Seven Jewish Children: A Film for Gaza tells its story through glimpsed moments of Jewish family life. It starts with the Russian pogroms of 1903 and finishes with the 2008-09 Israeli action in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead. With a repeated refrain, each family questions in turn what they should tell a young daughter – setting up taboos that, it is implied, will have serious consequences. Making his film, Dayan said, was the first time he had embraced his heritage in his work. 'This play made me realise that I am Jewish, I am the son of Israeli parents, and this is a story I need to tell,' he said. And it was a family project. The director's father, Ami Dayan, and his grandmother – the Israeli actress Rivka Michaeli – are in his cast. 'Because the film is rooted in family, them being right beside me really helped,' said Dayan. Churchill, 86, has given the film her approval. Made by a crew of 50 which worked for nothing and included Israelis and Palestinians, it will be shown free on Monday 31 March in London, at the Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square, to raise money for Medical Aid for Palestinians. It will then be released on YouTube. When Churchill wrote the play she stipulated it could be read or performed anywhere as long as no admission fee was charged and a collection was taken for this charity. The director hopes the film will go on to be shown to invited groups in universities, schools, community groups and synagogues. 'The script is so clear, even though the issue is so complex,' said Dayan. 'The play did an incredible job of showing what different positions have been taken, as well as looking at the times we are in. I hope that the film helps in the same way.' Before the film starts, a note on the screen spells out it was made before the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel. However, Dayan and his team were editing the film that day. 'We took a break for a while,' he said, 'because I didn't want what we did to be a reaction. We had all known, of course, that there was going to be another chapter one day. It is incredibly sad.' While he anticipates protest, as well as support, Dayan said he hopes that audiences from all sides will listen. 'We hope that [we] can guide people to a place where they are not putting up their usual defences,' he said. 'Everyone has a view, but we are asking them to put those aside for 15 minutes, to let the characters speak. Then afterwards, if they want to, they can pick up set attitudes again afterwards.' Some critics at the time argued the play was antisemitic. The Times's 2009 review said it was evidence of 'straitjacketed political orthodoxy', while novelist Howard Jacobson described it as a 'hate-fuelled little chamber piece' in the Independent, warning it was part of 'a gradual habituation of a language of loathing'. Jacobson added: 'Caryl Churchill will argue that her play is about Israelis not Jews, but once you venture on to 'chosen people' territory – feeding all the ancient prejudice against that miscomprehended phrase – once you repeat in another form the medieval blood-libel of Jews rejoicing in the murder of little children, you have crossed over. This is the old stuff.' In contrast, the Guardian's Michael Billington praised Churchill for capturing 'the transition that has overtaken Israel, to the point where security has become the pretext for indiscriminate slaughter', adding: 'Avoiding overt didacticism, her play becomes a heartfelt lamentation for the future generations who will themselves become victims of the attempted military suppression of Hamas.' In the aftermath of the row, the Guardian also ran a full transcript of the play. Dayan believes many attacks on the play 'had no true merit' because the people criticising it had not seen it. 'There is a real fear that goes down generation to generation that Churchill shows. This play should be seen as something that can help explain it,' he said. 'Instead, there was a real jump to delegitimise it.' Last week the BBC's board apologised for 'significant and damaging' mistakes in the production of a documentary on Gaza which featured the son of a Hamas official. It has now been taken down. Dayan said he had not seen the programme, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, but believed it should still be available to watch. 'I don't yet know the details,' he said, 'but it should be shown as long as there is full disclosure. It is very difficult to tell these stories now, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. My instinct is that it should be seen. Discussion is the most important thing.' Such divisions in culture and over media coverage must be fought if they lead to censorship and 'cancellation', he argues. 'We have already been disinvited from showing our film at festival for the Jewish community at a centre in New York.' Influenced by Lars von Trier's film Dogville, Dayan set his film on a basic sound stage, with different domestic spaces marked out on the floor: 'My first thought had been to set each scene in its location, but it didn't work,' he said. Dominic Cooke, the original director of the play, has saluted his choices, calling the film 'a terrific achievement'. 'Caryl's vision of an Israel trapped in cycles of trauma is sadly more pertinent now than ever,' Cooke added. Dayan said he hoped reaction to his film would take the form of conversation, not argument: 'I'll be pleased if people see it, even if they go on to disagree about it. That was part of the intention of making it; that, and the fundraising.'
