DEEP HEATVitya and Mohammed

at Wimbledon College of Arts Theatre

Exploration of an object as a document and the dialogue it has with

documentary text.

The Repast

1. Stage and Story

-I remember I took my visa card out of my pocket ....my daughter was on my left helping the lady pack the carrier bags...I pulled out my visa card...and the bomb went off. (placing the chicken and vegetables on the baking sheet)

-you set up at eight in the morning; by midday you’ve been stopped at three unofficial checkpoints...told to take your hands out of your pocket, usually at gunpoint, questioned, searched, asked for papers...you haven’t even reached one of the official checkpoints where you might have to wait in a queue for an hour...an hour and a half; of course, you give up..you go back to your village.(baking the kenafah)

PERFORMERS SAY - I want to be a little bit dramatic. I went with my daughter...she’d come from Tel Aviv.. we went to the Mall in Jerusalem to buy presents for the holiday of Passover. I remember I brought white and black blouse for my sister, and for my mother I brought a large ceramic bowl, brown and beige for putting pasta in. (cutting chicken)

-We’ve been making sweets for five generations. I started learning secrets of the trade from my father when I was fourteen, and I hope to pass the skills on to my own son who is five now. (pouring milk in a sauce pan and warming it)

SCREEN Kenafah is a Levantine cheese pastry soaked in sweet sugar-based syrup, typical of the regions belonging to the former Ottoman Empire.[1] It is a dessert specialty of the Levant, especially in Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Israel, Syria and northern Egypt.

SCREEN Chicken is often the centre of the Shabbat dinner. For generations Jews have been making variations of this recipe to serve to their families on Friday nights. Both simple and adaptable, this recipe is a staple in Jewish kitchens around the world.

Technical Drawing The kitchen is a universal modern space that has all the necessary possibilities for both of the meals to be prepared.

2. The Screens and The History of Ingredients

The dialogue of objects works on: - physicality and dynamics of the action (chopping, pouring, baking)- the origin and tradition of the products (text on screen)- the mutual ingredients

The screens represent the story that is bigger and longer then the one told on stage. The story of tradition.

3.Performers

Both the Jewish woman and Arabic man are dressed casually and simple. They are not trying to look typical nor as their heroes. Both have the same aprons.

There conversation is light and easy going, as if they are colleagues that are cooking a meal together. The emotional facts told to each other (as the exploding or day long queues) do not astonish them as they do not astonish any other Israeli or Palestinian citizen. These stories are part of an everyday life as cooking a meal.

4. Final

-“But you know... even if no one came to my shop at all, I’d still make Kunafa every day, just to keep the tradition going. “

(both decorating prepared dish with pistachio)

The screens stop showing live broadcast after both the stories are told and smoothly change to a video of the same hands cleaning the kitchen space after the cooking. They put back the products, gather the dirty dishes. The sound of this cleaning becomes louder then the voices of the performers.

On stage the two performers continue a quiet conversation and share the food that they prepared with each other.

Outside the theatre there is a kenafah and a chicken prepared in advance and offered to the audience to try and share.