Abu Hanifa and Anan Ben David

Abu Hanifa and Anan Ben David is adapted from the absurd, comedic story by Friedrich Durrenmatt. It portrays two great holy men–one Hebrew, one Islamic–who have been imprisoned together by an Abbasidian Caliph in 760 C.E. in an abominable cell, where each will torture the other with his antagonistic piety. Through the strength of their faith, the holy men survive ages and empires, even while their religiously-formed ideologies refuse dialogue, so that their only common ground is the prison of their conflict. This playwriting collaboration between adapters Al-Ras (Palestinian) and Avishai Milshtein (Israeli) is directed by Peter Braschler of the Maralem Theatre in Zurich, Switzerland.