I am Yousef and this is my brother

This evening I went to watch the play "I am Yousef and this is my brother" performed at the Young Vic in Southwark by "Shibr Hur". It was nice but I think I was in a restless mood and probably didn't give the show all the attention it deserved. The co-star of "yousef" was the lead actor in the film Paradise Now, as were a number of the cast. One thing which annoyed me, not that I needed it, was that the subtitling which was being projected above was sloppy and people who didn't speak Arabic wouldn't have fully understood all that was happening. I enjoyed some of the subtleties in the plot and there were some quite emotional scenes especially near the end.I also thought there was a bit too much water splashing around on stage and wasn't really sure what effect it had, apart from creating a mess. Overall these guys made a good effort with the limited resources they had and they deserved the applause for all their hard work.

Afterwards, we met with the director, screenwriter and actors in a small private function room. They are all from the Arabs of '48 and mostly from Galilee if I wasn't mistaken, they seemed to be nice people. In a quirky way, I still find it a novelty when I meet Arabs who actually live in the Israeli state, it is like they are from another planet, which they might as well be, cut off from even each other within occupied Palestine. I hope they come back to London next year.