EDINBURGH FESTIVAL 2009: The Other Side

In November 2000, a young woman in Israel picked up the phone to call a friend. An unfamiliar man's voice answered the phone. After a few minutes of talking, it emerged that the man was Palestinian. She had dialled a wrong number and found herself talking to someone living in the Gaza Strip, on the other side of the wall.

This random conversation led to the ‘Hello Peace' initiative, which led to thousands of phone calls taking place between people living on opposite sides of the Middle East conflict. Sometimes challenging, often reconciliatory, these conversations, which inspired the BBC Radio 4 documentary Calls Across the Wall, formed the starting point for The Other Side, playing at the Gilded Balloon.

"My name is Sara, today I had to call my husband's mother and tell her that Yousef had been shot. The soldier stopped us at the checkpoint, on the way to the hospital and shot him 70 centimetres away from his head. And he killed him. Even without knowing him. You just have this question; ‘why?' I mean ‘For what?' Killing my husband is securing the country? I have a reason to resist, but I never thought I wanted to kill somebody. Even if I kill them all, I will not feel better, I mean he will not come back."

Taking material from the radio documentary, plus their own interviews with some of the participants in the initiative, Scene created the script for The Other Side. Blending this documentary-style text with physical theatre and music, the company present a moving and agenda-free insight into the personal impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Directed by Gavin Robertson (The Six Sided Man, Thunderbirds FAB), The Other Side is Scene's first production at the Edinburgh Fringe. Formed by Katharine Hurst and Kelly Taylor Smith, the company aims to create bold physical theatre and has toured productions of Dr Faustus and several Brecht plays.

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