History was made Sept. 14 at the Al-Midan Theater in Haifa. It was the first time that the theater, founded in 1995, performed a play in Hebrew. "Oved Shabbat" (“Quieter Days”) was directed by Sinai Peter and written by playwrights Hanna Eady, a native of the Druze town of Peki’in, who now lives in the United States, and Edward Mast. The play was originally written in English and then translated into Hebrew. It will one day be performed in Arabic as well.
“This isn’t an act of coexistence,” says the theater’s artistic director, Salwa Nakara. “We liked the writing and the play’s approach,” she clarifies, “and we thought that presenting it to a Hebrew-speaking audience was the right thing to do. Our voice won’t be heard without Hebrew. Much to our chagrin, Israel today has yet to realize the importance of understanding the Arabic language.”