Doing and Undoing: Speaking for Palestinians on the Royal Court Stage

Authors

Alon Ben-Porat

Abstract

In the past few decades, particularly on the Royal Court stage, British playwrights have endeavored to depict Palestinians. Several of them have stated that representing Palestine from Britain poses a unique challenge. As a result, I argue that such representations are often conducted through an organizing principle termed here as “doing and undoing.” The latter involves metatheatrical plays, which feature playwright figures and remind audiences that they are watching a performance. These plays critically examine the process of narrative creation. In the most overt cases, the playwright figures are those who wrote the plays, and they question whether they are qualified to author the very pieces they inhabit. Sami Ibrahim’s 2022 play two Palestinians go dogging is used as a main case study, exemplifying how doing and undoing relates to building a character from the far-off space, the relationship between stage and audience, and power dynamics in theatre. Doing and doing is ultimately a prism from which to look at theatre and its fundamentals anew.

Recommended Citation

Ben-Porat, Alon (2025) "Doing and Undoing: Speaking for Palestinians on the Royal Court Stage," Comparative Drama: Vol. 59: Iss. 3, Article 3.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol59/iss3/3