MIRIAM AND YOUSSEF - ISRAEL/PALESTINE RADIO DRAMA
The concept of a ‘radio epic’ sounds contradictory; after all, the wireless is fundamentally an intimate medium – one or two voices in your ear, an enemy of cacophony. And yet the ten-part docu-drama ‘Miriam and Youssef’ can’t be described in anything other than epic terms. The play written for radio by Steve Waters runs in total for five hours and spans 31 crucial years in the fractured, much disputed and tinder-box history of Israel/Palestine.
A much celebrated national figure in contemporary drama, Waters who lives locally, has bitten off a huge mouthful – was he able to chew it? In a word, yes. And rather magnificently.
Waters’ aim was to throw some light on the turbulent background to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Being a playwright to his inky fingertips, he clearly threw all his dramatist’s skills at the enormous challenge ahead. His structure as a history play is a winner in my view. First he sets each of the episodes in a particular time frame – usually some turning points in history. These include the Balfour Declaration of 1917 (a promise by the British of a ‘Jewish homeland’ in Palestine), the establishment of a new kibbutz by pioneer socialist exiled from Eastern Europe, the mass violence against Jews in 1929, – all the way up to the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the massacre of a Palestinian village and the UN vote to establish the Jewish state. The role of the British in ruling this troubled land (as a result of a League of Nations mandate over former Turkish empire domains) is centre to explaining the tragic events of this 20th century thirty-year war (or at least absence of peace).
These broad historical sore spots are told through a small group of characters who are given the power of articulating a Judean landscape of views – from armed insurrection to peaceful co-existence, from moral intervention to murderous terrorism. Waters’ two main characters illuminate his working method. Miriam is a young Jewish immigrant fleeing persecution with her mother from Poland. She is full of hope for a bright future where Jews can live freely and get on with their Arab neighbours. In the next valley to her kibbutz is the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin where the young Youssef lives with his family. He also has his dreams – of being educated, of supporting his village, of helping create a future state.
There is one significant meeting of the two young people but for most of the play they are firmly cast on either side of a not-so invisible wall. Shani Erez brings gravitas and burning hope to the part of Miriam the would-be Israeli; Amir el Masryas Youssef hitting just the right note of frustrated ambition for peace but drawn inexorably to armed resistance. Our central characters are flanked by Harry Lister – a British civil servant whose innate decency and sense of moral duty is compromised by his role as colonial master. Lister is played with touching sensitivity by Blake Ritson. Elliot Levey captures the right balance of desperation and cunning in David Ben Gurion (Israel’s first prime minister) and Dana Haqjoo is believably scary as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Other characters play those who feel that only violence with lead to their goals.
You will learn a lot about these rocky British Mandate times which helped to shape the conflict we still see playing out in Israel/Palestine. Waters keeps a judicious balance. The story is told by the two central characters explaining the history to their children. It is a simple but explosively powerful device. The production is very well served by its wonderful soundscapes of Judeo/Arabic music and necessary voices off (riots or outrages, mass gatherings or clandestine raids) are well tempered not to overwhelm the ear.
If you think you know all there is to know about this conflict; if you feel it is a good guy versus bad guy story, or if you think it was all about perfidious Albion, listen to the whole series and make your mind up then.
Whatever the history, Waters’ mammoth radio drama stands on its ability to draw you into caring about the characters. This is above all a human story. And you don’t get more epic than that.
‘Miriam and Youssef’ is available now on BBC Sounds or on Podcast.
