I am Yusuf and This Is My Brother

Description

I am Yusuf and This Is My Brother is a powerful, poetic exploration of history, memory and different forms of love. 'Before it happened I didn't know those people existed. Now I'm not certain that we do...' January 1948. Palestine. The British Mandate is ending. The UN is voting on who will control what part of the land. Ali is in love with Nada - but he is in despair. Her father won't let them marry because his brother Yusuf is 'odd' with his own eccentric, child-like point of view. Rufus, a soldier on the occupying British forces, longs for the cold fogs of Sheffield. War begins and, as the villagers are scattered and become refugees, the secret that's kept Ali and Nada apart is revealed. Although set within a politically charged context, the play is full of haunting, dreamlike poetry rather than didactic polemicism. Instead of simply exploring the political debate, Zuabi concentrates more on the richness of language and culture. With a keen awareness of the vulnerability and fragile ephemerality of life, I am Yusuf and This Is My Brother explores humanity and love in the context of loss and death.

Young Vic international associate Amir Nizar Zuabi first worked at the Young Vic in 2002 when his production of Alive From Palestine played an extended run to packed houses before touring internationally. His recent work includes Samson and Delilah (Flanders Opera, Antwerp) and a dramatisation of Jidarriya, an epic poem by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, (Edinburgh International Festival, Bouffes du Nord and international tour).

Moves one because of its provenance' : 'the tone...is more poetic than rancorous and steeped in sorrow rather than in hate' : 'The play makes a direct appeal to our emotions and our sense of guilt * Michael Billington, The Guardian, 22.01.10 * 'a powerful and highly personal piece' : 'Belatedly but most beautifully, a drama about the appalling tensions of 1948' * Paul Taylor, The Independent, 25.01.10 *