Tennis in Nablus finds faults in Palestinian history

Writer Ismail Khalidi won the Alliance Theatre’s sixth Kendeda Graduate Playwright Competition for Tennis in Nablus, and deserves the honor for sheer effrontery. Born in Beirut and raised in Chicago, Khalidi strides into the minefield of Palestine’s history to juggle such high-yield thematic explosives as Zionism, British colonial abuse, and the Palestinian independence movement.

On top of that, Khalidi’s brazen enough to make Tennis in Nablus partially a comedy that looks for laughs in an area of the world marked by centuries of bloodshed and hard feelings. In its world premiere production at the Alliance Hertz Stage, Tennis in Nablus courts controversy with its witty treatment of the Holy Land’s history, but doesn’t always ace its serve.

Nablus uses the tensions within one family to dramatize the turbulence among Palestinians in 1939. The play begins when convict-turned-fugitive Yusef (Demosthenes Chrysan) arrives in Nablus after two years to reunite with his wife, Ambara (Suehyla El-Attar). Both spouses use separate means to agitate for Palestinian freedom from British control: Yusef pursues armed rebellion and other forms of open protest, while Ambara writes fiery tracts under male pseudonyms.

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(Photo by Jeff Gaines)