Peace Warriors
Peace Warriors is a 2009 play by Doron Ben-Atar. The play is scheduled to be premier on July 10, 2009 at the "prestigious" the Washington, D.C. Capital Fringe Festival. It will then run at the New York International Fringe Festival in August, 2009.
The play is set at a dinner hosted by a Jewish American couple, Daryl and Scooter Lewis, both radical left-wing academics. The dinner party is in honor of two actresses, one Israeli and one Palestinian, who are touring the United States in a two person play to promote coexistence.
Ben-Atar, who teaches at Fordham University and Yale University was inspired to write the play after he hosted two actresses, one Israeli and one Palestinian, who really were touring the United States in a two person play to promote coexistence.
Natalia Emanuel, who plays the role of the adolescent Glen Lewis, is a Yale University undergraduate, and the daughter of oncologist Ezekiel J. Emanuel and niece of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and superagent Ari Emanuel. The final performance at the Capital Fringe Festival on July 25 was delayed by Secret Service security precautions because Rahm Emmanuel attended.
Reception
The Washington Post called Peace Warriors, "a sexy comedy AbOUT academics and Middle East politics."
Il Foglio described Peace Warriors as a "refreshingly funny drama."
According to the Washington City Paper the play depicts the debate about Israeli policies among Jews whose true "religion is Radicalism." Ben-Atar put the play together with material actually written or broadcast by anti-Israel Jewish activists. According to the City Paper, some of the quotations Ben-Atar wanted to use were cut during rehearsal for being too offensive or so extreme as to seem implausible.
David Bell calls it " a savagely witty satire of elite American academics, and their attitudes towards the Middle East."
According to DCist.com, "The writing, directing and acting are strong throughout," and "the disquieting mix of seductions, drama, wit, and character study offers more than enough to keep any theatergoer on the edge of their seat."
NYTheatre.com called the play "compelling."