As an Arab Christian who grew up in Israel as part of the country’s Palestinian minority, Yousef Sweid embodies a uniquely complex position—one that mirrors the layered entanglements of identity, history, and belonging in the Middle East itself. In his autobiographical one-man show, Between the River and the Sea (co-written and directed with Isabella Sedlak), Sweid, now based in Germany, draws on his own life to illuminate the wider conflicts that have shaped the region since the founding of the Israeli state in 1948.
Given the play’s provocative title and incendiary topic, Sweid and Sedlak work to humanise the political as embodied within Sweid himself, whose personal struggle with bullying, misunderstanding and searching for a place in the world brings poignancy to his unique situation.
Alone on stage with only a chair and microphone, Sweid moves fluidly between a range of characters as his story crosses cultures, countries, and belief systems, along with the assumptions imposed on him by others. He evokes a richly peopled world: his upbringing, his training as an actor, relationships, marriage, and his eventual move to Germany, where he finds himself in the midst of his second divorce. Whether inhabiting his father, ex-wife, a childhood adversary or even a Mossad recruiter, he shifts between roles with lithe confidence. Throughout, he offers candid glimpses into deeply personal moments with family, partners, children, and lovers.
The evening is undeniably engaging as storytelling, though it leans more towards a sequence of episodes than a fully developed dramatic arc. While Sweid’s sincerity and compassion are evident, the episodes can feel somewhat discrete; a stronger through-line might have lifted the work into a more theatrically compelling state.
Sedlak’s direction keeps the piece moving at a steady pace, making effective use of the microphone to signal shifts in character and time. Simply dressed in beige shirt and trousers, Sweid brings the evening to a gentle but resonant close, reading a story written by his son that imagines a utopian Middle East—an appeal for unity, understanding, and the possibility of resolution.
(Note: I attended the show at a preview, prior to 20 April opening)
By: Yousef Sweid & Isabella Sedlak
Director: Isabella Sedlak
Performer: Yousef Sweid
Running Time: 1 hour, without interval
Until: 9 May
Photo Credit: Holly Revell