Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
(His latest is about Otto von Bismarck.)
(More recently, he won a Tony for the book ofThe Bands Visit.)
It sounds simple, but the mirror can be the hardest thing to face.
For some, perhaps for many, itwillbe hard to listen to parts of Mosess play.
Though its characters talk like blazes, the play doesnt strut or pose or act pleased with itself.
It has no great answer.
Hes also dealing with a traumatic loss: Campus police have killed his cousin.
The murder was recorded on video (He just keeps asking, What did I do?
What did I do?
What Baron is doing is collecting signatures, and Asaf is theoretically all in.
Then he reads the whole document.
Once hes back at home with Gwen, Asaf winces and wriggles.
I dont know if Id use the wordapartheid?
Now, he has smartly designated that its action takes place in September and early October of 2023.
Im sure many of them would say, like Asaf to Gwen, Look.
My feelings about Israel are the …reasonableones.
He wants to understand and explain himself, and he wants to listen and to act rightly.
He and Nikia once marched together, protested and petitioned together.
(One doesnt have to look far formyriadexamplesofactualuniversitiesbehaving like frightened dictatorships.)
roars Farid, making jokey-scary claws at Asaf when Rachel introduces them.
Radnor practically chokes on his own exquisite awkwardness.)
Moses is much smarter than that, much less self-certain, and much,muchfunnier.
Ego, of course.
Asaf melts, immediately and hilariously.
Why just be a name on a list when you could becool?
Why arent we entitled to the same protections as you?
he asks Nikia, desperately, when the real shit has finally begun to be said.
But how to reconcile it with Nikias truth (Im worried about folks dyingtoday!)?
You condemneach individual indefensible act!
he fires at Asaf.
Yet you will not condemn as indefensible the national entity that carries them out!
Well, becausemostsoldiers surely dontbehavethis way … Well, then, there must be areason.What didyoudo toprovokethem?
He turns to Baron, saying, Yes.Youknow.
Andthisis how it is the same … in theexperienceof moving through the world as the threat of violence incarnate.
They dont need to see the bomb, the gun.
Karadsheh soars through this speech, trembling but iron, ablaze, holding his ground.
(Its doubly heartbreaking in light of his little facetious growl at Asaf all those scenes ago.)
What is to be done with all this truth?
Is our resolution sicklied oer with the pale cast of thought?
The Allyis at the Public Theater through March 17.
Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism.
