Review: The Bridge (Bush Theatre)

Review by Sam Waite

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Theatre can be something fun, an hour or two where you can laugh and be taken away from your own stresses. It can also be an important tool for bringing information and ideas to a wider audience, something which forces its audience to reckon with difficult truths they might otherwise push aside. In the case of The Bridge, Alaa Shehada’s new one-man play premiering at the Bush Theatre, these two possibilities constantly intermingle.

Another year has passed, and it is time once more for Alaa to deliver the container of olive oil his mother sends to her beloved sister each year. Unable to travel, his mother enlists him in this seemingly simple task, complicated by the only route available to reach his aunt and uncle’s home in the Kingdom of Jordan – that titular bridge. Rather than a literal bridge, this is the singular route through which citizens of the West Bank may leave or return to Palestine, passing through three checkpoints across its hundred-and-eighty metres: Palestinian and Jordanian at either end, and Israeli in its centre.

With current – and historic, in truth – global politics being what they are, it’s easy to learn the setup for The Bridge and assume you’re settling in for eighty minutes of anguish. Shehada, however, uses his blend of storytelling and standup to bring a great deal of joy to the proceedings, both maintaining a more comfortable atmosphere for his audience and giving added weight to the darker moments. His writing finds him moving between various characters encountered on the journey as well as narrating his crossing to the audience, moving smoothly between the two modes.

Shehada does a brilliant job of inhabiting these supporting characters, from over-eager bus drivers to bothersome travellers and raucous family members. Meanwhile, it is his central performance, as a version of himself, that proves to be the most impactful and effective. Personable and eminently familiar, this is a son who is simply doing what he does each year, and this everyman quality makes the impact of what is going on around him all the more dynamic. His comedic talents also keep the audience equal parts invested and entertained, allowing for his shifts into dramatic, essential commentary to land that bit more firmly, so engaged is his public in what he has to say.

With only a small bench and the oil cannister itself to populate it, the open stage is well-utilised by director Sam Beale, who populates the world with the help of Micaela Miranda’s movement direction and Shehada’s performance. Having the audience looking on from three sides, Beale has her star dash back and forth, in constant motion where the scene calls for a bustling checkpoint, and more firmly planted when trapped into a packed bus. This allows the world of The Bridge to feel as densely populated as the bridge itself, and develops a frantic energy that reminds us that no matter how much Alaa is making us laugh, this is a tiring, seemingly endless endeavour for crossing such a minute distance.

Behind Shehada, the back wall of the Bush auditorium is adorned frequently with striking imagery creating through Lily Dawford’s lighting design. Ranging from the olive trees of Alaa’s family home in Jenin to an imagined airport and the real-life checkpoints, these images add to both the humorous and the serious moments of The Bridge, and prove both arresting and delightful as they are formed before the audience’s eyes. Alongside music and well-calibrated sound design from Julius Pollux Rothlaender, embedding us further into scenes with amplification for key characters’ appearances, this gives The Bridge a striking, unforgettable aesthetic quality alongside its powerful storytelling.

Proving that laughter, joy, and a sorrowful pause for thought can exist alongside one another, The Bridge takes on imperialist past, occupational presents, and the concerns of what future could be on the horizon with a sense of hope and a sense of humour. Alaa Shehada stretches his abilities as actor, writer, and comedian, and alongside his director has shaped something endlessly moving, deeply relatable, and startlingly relevant – both to the world we live in now, and the one we have long tried to ignore.

The Bridge plays at the Bush Theatre until November 11th

For tickets and information visit https://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/event/the-bridge/

Photos by Craig Fuller