The Denver Theatre Company has produced a 32-page study guide to accompany its controversial play, Two Things you Dont Talk about at Dinner, by Lisa Loomer.
The purpose of the study guide is to inform theatergoers about the intricacies of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, about the Passover seder, and about a slew of related topics that come up during the play from the Crusades to the growth of anti-Semitic parties in Europe in the late 19th century to ageism and civil discourse as well as a comprehensive glossary of terms used in the play.
The heart of the study guide is an eight-page Timeline of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Overall, the timeline is fair and balanced, and strives for neutrality.
The timeline begins in antiquity and continues through the Middle Ages up to the present day.
The bulk of the timeline is devoted to events following the Balfour Declaration of 1917, when the British committed to establish in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people.
The timeline does not stint on the terrorist and other attacks by Arabs on Jews in the land of Israel.
The timeline does contain errors and omissions.
The biggest omission is that when the UN divided the Palestinian mandate into a Jewish and an Arab state creating Israel the Arabs rejected the UNs Palestinian state.
Another major omission is Operation Peace for Galilee, the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon in response to unceasing, unprovoked Palestinian terrorist attacks on Israel by the PLO from that territory.
The biggest errors are: 1) the statement that Yasir Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin signed the Declaration of Prinicples in Oslo, when, in fact, they signed on the White Hosue lawn; and, 2) the apparent reference to President Obamas Middle East envoy George Mitchell, whose mission is said to have been in 2001, when it was, in fact, in 2009-2011.
Read also Larry Hankin’s review of the performance and the related IJN editorial
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News
