Review: Kennedy Center Hosts Palestinian Artist Raeda Taha's WHERE CAN I FIND SOMEONE LIKE YOU, ALI?

The novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has spoken about the problems that result from an entire people being defined by a single story. Adichie's modern-day, post-colonial Nigeria is one example of a people held hostage by negative Western narrative; modern-day Palestine is another. The word "Palestinian" has become synonymous with terror, and we are spoon-fed images of angry Arabs screaming at the camera when they're not bombing cafes, planes, etc.

It hasn't occurred to the mainstream media that beyond the headlines, and just out of the camera's view, are families-many of them now fatherless-struggling to survive and maintain their identity in a world that has grown increasingly hostile to their very existence. We know nothing of those people and their stories; yet if we ever expect to get anywhere near peace in the Middle East, these are the very people whose stories must be heard.

Raeda Taha's brilliant autobiographical one-woman show, Where Can I Find Someone Like You, Ali?, provides us with just such a narrative. Taha is the eldest daughter of an early martyr to the Palestinian cause-a distinction that opened many doors but which effectively denied her a normal childhood. Her father wasn't even supposed to die; Ali Taha fully expected to return home. Instead, Raeda found herself surrounded by strangers and was forced moved from school to school, living as a refugee in Beirut with her mother, far from her father's family in Jerusalem.

Working with director Lina Abyad, Raeda Taha performs sitting on a sofa as if we were invited to visit her apartment. And although she studied at George Mason University and is fluent in English, Taha's play is performed entirely in Arabic-a choice that reinforces her Palestinian identity. For the Kennedy Center performances, the English surtitles were not as detailed as they could be, which meant that some of the nuances (and more than a few good jokes) were unavailable to non-Arab speakers. But the stage also featured a projection screen which featured photos and videos of her father, her family, and major figures in the Palestinian community - Yasser Arafat most prominently.

For years, Raeda Taha served as Arafat's press secretary-he had actually stayed in touch with her family since her childhood, and was one of many father-figures in her life. But with this privilege came great risk; it is significant that the evening begins with an account of the night an aide to Arafat attempted to rape her. Although Arafat promised to avenge the assault, Taha noticed that the man remained among her boss's advisors. The audience is left to contemplate what it must have been like to work at such close quarters with men who regarded even the daughter of a martyr to their cause as fair game.

The story, in other words, is not simple or blindly patriotic; it reveals the darker side of Palestinian politics. But there is also great joy as Taha recounts the brighter moments which were afforded her as a child, and especially when she is reunited with her father's sister in Jerusalem. The account of her aunt's efforts to recover Ali Taha's body from the Israeli authorities, and of the subsequent funeral, is an unforgettable sequence and not without its moments of humor.

Raeda Taha, to her credit, has no interest in sugar-coating the struggle of which she is a part. She knows that the Palestinian cause is complex, and that some of those involved are unworthy of trust. But she also knows what it is to live as an exile from one's own home, and how important it is to bear witness to the humanity of people like her, who have been caught in the crossfire of greater forces and denied the right to a normal life.

Photo: Raeda Taha. Photo courtesy of the Kennedy Center.

Performance Time: 75 minutes without intermission.

Where Can I Find Someone Like You, Ali? was performed as part of the Theater by Palestinians festival, March 15-25 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. For more information about events there visit:

http://www.kennedy-center.org/

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