Audience Members See TWO JEWS & Then Help Locate Afghanistan's Real-Life 'Last Jew'

The premise of Seth Rozin’s funny and poignant TWO JEWS WALK INTO A WAR… is inspired by the true story of Zebulon Simentov and Isaak Levi, who were introduced to world by Mark Landler’s 2002 New York Times article, entitled, "2 Jews Outlast Taliban. Maybe Not Each Other.," as the last two remaining Jews in Kabul, Afghanistan, after years of Taliban reign in the capital city:

They live across a dusty, sun-baked courtyard from each other, share a tiny kitchen and possess a bond unique in this country's tribal culture: they are the only Jews known to live in the capital of Afghanistan. In the past two months, with the fall of the Taliban, the two men have escaped the long shadow of the fundamentalist Muslim movement, which regarded Judaism as the root of much of the world's evil. By any measure, this should be a happy time for Zbolon Semantov and Isaak Levi. But they are far too busy fighting a private war to take much notice of the dramatic turn in their country's very public conflict.

'I don't talk to him, he's the devil,' Mr. Semantov said of his neighbor. 'A dog is better than him.'

Mr. Levi, peering out his window to see if his nemesis was listening, said, 'He's a thief and a liar.'

Like many longstanding feuds, the conflict between Mr. Semantov and Mr. Levi is cloaked in layers of posturing, evasion and arcane details. But at its heart, the fight is over two forlorn temples - known here as "Jewish mosques" - over which both men claim stewardship...

Although Afghan Jews began emigrating to Israel, Britain and the United States after World War II, the exodus gathered speed during the violence of the mujahedeen wars in the early 1990's. By the time the Taliban seized control in 1996, only five Jewish families were left in Kabul. Now they are gone, too, leaving Mr. Semantov, 41, and Mr. Levi, 60, to squabble over a pair of ramshackle temples that have long since lost their worshipers...

Read Mark Landler’s Entire New York Times Article

The unusual circumstances described in the article set playwright Seth Rozin’s imagination into motion. Some months later, Rozin penned TWO JEWS WALK INTO A WAR…, a vaudevillian-style look at what day-to-day life could have been like for the two men who had nothing in common except a desire to repopulate the Jewish community in Kabul and a deep disdain for one another.

But the story doesn’t end there…

Shortly after the world premiere production of TWO JEWS WALK INTO A WAR… at Florida Stage (West Palm Beach, FL), Rozin received an email from Lieutenant Colonel Robert Engell. As it turns out, Lt. Col. Engell’s parents saw TWO JEWS at Florida Stage and sent the playbill to their son who was serving as the lay Jewish leader for coalition forces in Kabul. Lt. Col. Engell had written to Rozin hoping to find more information about Zebulon Simentov and the synagogue where he lives. Lt. Col. Engell believed he could be of assistance to the man and the rundown building. After a worldwide flurry of emails, Lt. Col. Engell finally tracked down Simentov and posted the following account of their meeting on the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan website:

As I went out to the security gate to meet our guest, I was filled with anticipation. I was going to meet the last Jew in Afghanistan... I was first introduced to Zabolon Simentov after my folks went to the play “Two Jews Walk into a War.” Amidst the Mundle bread and Toll House cookies in their care package was the Playbill with the simple note “Thought you might be interested... Don’t do anything stupid like trying to find him. Be Safe!” What was I to do?...

Read Lt. Col. Robert Engell's Entire Story

Since the New York Times’ original article, Isaak Levi passed away in 2005 at the approximate age of 80, leaving Zebulon Simentov with the final word on their never-resolved feud.

Here is a brief list of stories that feature Simentov as “the last Jew in Afghanistan”:

2010 CNN Video:
Afghanistan’s Last Jew Vows To Stay Put

2007 San Francisco Gate Article (with Pictures):
Alone On Flower Street: He Survived Soviets, Taliban - And Outlasted Even His Despised Peer

2005 BBC News Article:
‘Only One Jew’ Now In Afghanistan



Links to More Information:

Purchase Tickets to InterAct's TWO JEWS WALK INTO A WAR…

Find Out More About InterAct's TWO JEWS WALK INTO A WAR...

Watch an Interview with Playwright Seth Rozin

Watch Promotional Videos of Florida Stage’s TWO JEWS WALK INTO A WAR…

Conan McCarty on Becoming George W. Bush

Icarus Continued...

It was a magnificent honor to meet Lee Blessing on this project...

4/19: First Monday off after we have opened and I am engulfed by a tsunami of guilt for not writing a blog entry in ages. Such things can happen during rehearsals and opening week; especially with a play such as SEA. Yes, it is only 85 minutes long, but it is a very dense piece and demands its players bring their ‘A’ games and as much versatility as they have as it slides from comedy (almost farcical at times, satirical at others) to thought provoking drama. Lee Blessing’s plays are always very smart, this is no exception. Lee visited for a day of rehearsals and then came back to see an early technical run through, and it was a thrill to meet him. I was amazed at his trust, but then he has already had two works produced at InterAct, WHORES and GOING TO ST. IVES, and he also knows Paul and Seth well. This complete trust he exhibited and hearing him laugh at his own jokes during the run gave the three players a great deal of confidence in our work.

We now have the benefit of a few performaces under our belt. I look very forward to the rest of the run. There have been announcements at each performance since opening that we are moving the production to New York for the month of June, but I have been around long enough to know that until there is a signed contract, nothing is definite. Still, the opportunity to fine tune our show is very welcome, and we have a full three weeks (at least) to mine as much richness as we can out of this wonderful piece. And if the New York run happens, we will be that much better prepared.

I am very pleased that the reviews out so far have understood what this play is about. Oh, yes, I have the flashy character, a president who elicited very strong feelings from both directions; but Lee is more interested in those who returned him to office. As Lee himself wrote in a written interview with InterAct’s dramaturg, Becky Wright, ‘I wrote this play not because “W” was our President. I wrote it because he’ll be President again. He’ll have a different name, but make no mistake- it’ll be him. Our inclination to forget what our politicians did to us and “move on” is what every politician counts on.’ I know that I went a long way down the round in understanding the play when at a certain rehearsal I realized that if Lee were to change the circumstances of his piece, it could also be written with Ronald Raegan, or Bill Clinton, or even Barak Obama on the hot seat. In fact, almost any of the giant presidents could be the focal point of the piece, though I don’t think Millard Filmore has much to worry about. The point is that we tend to deify a great leader and allow him to take far greater charge over our lives than we should. The Tea Party, while I think its members are generally misinformed and seven years late, is an attempt for the common man to have greater voice in our government. Such is the central question of Lee’s play. A good play should not answer such questions, but rather force the audience to compare points of view and examine their own lives. As I said in an early entry on this blog, ‘theatre’ means the seeing place.

And then there is the nuts and bolts of the thing, learning how to make it run like a Swiss clock six times a week for however many weeks it winds up being. And many theatre-goers are unaware how important their contribution is to the process. A very wise mentor once told me that theatre happens where the energies of the production meet the energies of the audience. There comes a time when players need an audience as badly as someone lost in the Sahara could use a bottle of Evian, not to mention a whole bunch of sunblock. Especially for a play that is as funny as Lee’s is. The director and stage manager and all the technical people have heard the jokes so many times they yawn through them. The players need the energy of laughter to get the play airbourne, so to speak (‘Houston, we have lift-off!’). And an audience will always tell you that half the jokes you worked so hard on in rehearsal aren’t really that funny,and that it’s the ones you didn’t really pay attention to that work the best. The jokes in this play seem to me to have particular value, because this script goes so quickly from comedy to drama. Therefore, the further we can take each extreme the greater journey the audience will take.

So a constant check-in is required. You must leave a third eye open at all times to see how this particular audience is at this particular performance and calibrate your performance appropriately. There is a moment very early in the show (it is actually on the first page of the script) that I have found to be reliably indicative about how quick and verbal the audience will be throughout that particular show. Basically from that point I have an idea of what kind of pace I can take through the first scene, which is the longest and one of the most difficult in the play. Not that the show is radically different each night; there are different things happening at all times because the players must be free and alive to what is happening to them, and the variables that can occur are numerous. But still we have only varied about two and a half minutes running time of the show since we started before an audience, which I think is incredibly consistent.

And we are all finding new things in our characters; greater depth and more simplicity. It makes it exciting to go to work each night and just see what your colleagues are going to show up with and how it will effect your work.

This is a wonderful script to work on and I do hope the New York run comes through, because I doubt I will be content to finish this play on May 9, and I think Lee deserves a longer life for his wonderful script. The New York Times actually carried an announcement in the paper this morning (4/20), so it looks as though we are a few steps closer. Hope, hope, hope…

- Conan McCarty

Read past entries of the Icarus Chronicles:
Parts I & II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI


Links to more information:

Purchase Tickets for InterAct's WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA

WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA Moves to Off-Broadway!

Read Wendy Rosenfield's Inquirer Review

Read Robert Zaller's BroadStreetReview.com Review

Play Description, Artist Bios & Performance Calendar
(including a talk-back with playwright Lee Blessing)

An Interview with Playwright Lee Blessing

InterAct's 20/20 New Play Commission Program

New York Times: "InterAct's WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA Moves to Off-Broadway"

In case you hadn't heard...

InterAct Theatre Company's World Premiere production of Lee Blessing's WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA is moving to New York for a limited run Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theatres, June 10 - July 3, 2010! This will be the first time an entire InterAct production will make the move to New York.

Here's the story in The New York Times!

Links to more information about WHEN WE GO UPON THE SEA:

Read Wendy Rosenfield's Inquirer Review

Read Robert Zaller's BroadStreetReview.com Review

Purchase Tickets

Play Description, Artist Bios & Performance Calendar
(including a talk-back with playwright Lee Blessing)

An Interview with Playwright Lee Blessing

Actor Conan McCarty on Playing George W. Bush

InterAct's 20/20 New Play Commission Program