The Pessoptimist
Directed by Don Mamouney
Until November 19 at the Sidetrack Theatre, Addison Road Community Centre, Marrickville, Sydney
Phone (02) 9294 4655 or email <theatre@sidetrack.com.au>
REVIEW BY SIMON TAYLER
Based on the novel by Emile Habiby, The Pessoptimist is a chronicle of the dispossession of the Palestinian people at the hands of Israel since its creation in 1948, told through the voice of Saeed Pessoptimist.
Saeed is the weak-minded son of a Palestinian collaborator, who journeys back into Haifa shortly after the creation of the state of Israel. Unlike most of his compatriots, he is allowed to remain there, but only because he comes under the protection of the Israelis.
In the ensuing decades, Saeed finds that the Israelis give nothing for free. His masters demand that he turn his back on his people and become a part of their new state.
And for the most part, Saeed does just that. He takes up residence in a confiscated apartment, furnished with belongings taken from the homes of expelled Arabs. He spies on his fellow Palestinians, denouncing the leaders of the resistance to "The Big Man", who is his controller. He even names his son Wa'ala, meaning loyalty, to keep his superiors happy.
But as the decades draw on, Saeed learns that collaborating with those who regard you as the enemy comes at a price. He is unable to return to his family home, which was taken over by Europeans. His childhood sweetheart and first wife is taken from him and his life with his second wife is a stifled existence filled with fear and doubt. When Saeed inadvertently mocks the Israeli fiction that only the West Bank and Gaza are occupied territories, he is jailed and treated with the same brutality as other Palestinian prisoners.
Eventually, Saeed ends up alone, caught between who he is and what the Israelis want of him. His friends and relatives are expelled and arrested, his son grows up a weak and dependent boy, whose only way of breaking free is a suicidal attempt at armed resistance.
Saeed's experience ends in a bizarre way, which has a disorienting influence on the play's story. However, the Sidetrack Theatre production of The Pessoptimist adds greatly to what is, for the most part, a strong and well-considered script. Film artist Assad Abdi fills the backdrop with archive footage of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, closely linking Saeed's story with the history of his people. The characters' choreography and use of stage space drags the audience into the disorientation and brutality of Saeed's experience, and the experience of the Palestinians around him.
From Green Left Weekly, November 2, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.