One of the most heartbreaking scenes in Hend Ayoub’s solo show Home? A Palestinian Woman’s Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness comes early, when young Hend giddily attends a party to celebrate Purim. The holiday, commemorating the defeat of the plot to massacre the Jews at the hands of Haman, is expressed by Hend as “the best holiday in Israel” as the Israeli children at the party enjoy costumes, crowns and snacks.
There’s one major problem. Hend, who lives as a citizen of Israel, is still an outsider as a Palestinian — or, in more dismissive terms used by those around her, an Arab. At the celebration, she tries to recoup the joy she possessed just moments prior by reminding other attendees that she too has a crown, and a wand, but gives up as tears explode from her young eyes. She makes a heart-wrenching request: “I want my mama.”
It’s a painful moment, and a critical piece of writing by Ayoub that sets in motion the story’s plot. Home, a one-woman autobiographical show about trying to make it as an actress split between Israeli citizenship and Palestinian identity, is a co-production between Z Space and San Francisco Playhouse that already has people talking ahead of its New York opening off Broadway in September.
Veteran director Carey Perloff lends a smooth hand to the play’s staging, moving the action with controlled freneticism. While some of Ayoub’s characterizations lean into tropes (the old woman with the hand on her back is a tired cliché), her story of a young girl who becomes a woman while searching for a home is poignant and timely. As added weight, it’s impossible to ignore the context that surrounds the play: devastating images of war and starvation that continue to pour out of Ayoub’s native region.
Ayoub’s words spend most of their capital making the case for humanity, and her script does a stellar job of avoiding pitfalls that might have strayed from the story’s core. There’s an American-dream quality to the narrative, right down to striving for a glamorous Carrie Bradshaw existence in New York. But Carrie is white with a nice American accent, and casting directors aren’t necessarily smitten with Hend’s Hebrew mastery of Strindberg’s Miss Julie or Shakespeare’s Feste the Fool.
