Realist but not realistic enough. This promising play disappoints Holly Williams.
Unveiling Hagar often obscures more than it reveals. The narrative – Max, a recently bereaved London based Jewish widower strikes up an unlikely and ever-deepening friendship with Layla, a younger Palestinian woman – is clearly aiming for some kind of Romeo and Juliet-style love-without-borders message. But Gloria Tessler's script is overwritten. Predictably antagonistic friends and relations feel one-dimensional, and a fair amount of dialogue relies on soap opera emotional cliches. It's also muddled at times. The complex relationship of the central pair hurtles through huge upheavals, often smothered in potent political context. It takes a more nuanced script than this to pull it off.
Sadly, the cast also over-act their way through most of the show. However, Shani Erez playing Layla, does the best with what she's given, bringing a degree of depth and reflection to her role as Layla, the young Palestinian woman who finds herself drawn to David Spark's Max. Despite her visible talents, the casting still feels a bit off key. One of the many issues Unveiling Hagar deals with is love across generations, and at one point the twenty years age gap between the lovers is made explicit. It might have been useful to hear that earlier, and the way Sparks plays the lonely bereaved gent, his attentions towards Layla can seem on the creepy side of a generational divide.
While there are moments when the play comes to life – there's a rather sweet dancing scene, and Erez's strange role-play of the Biblical story of Hagar has a certain power – it also could have done with a little more attention to detail. The style is resolutely realist, which suits the material, though it lacks consistency and isn't as realistic as it tries to be: there are moments of exaggerated acting that feel positively am-dram (energetically unconvincing typing, for instance), and if you're going to make explicit references to pouring glasses of sherry and Scotch, don't use bottles of wine and Jack Daniels.
Photo Credit: Ninha Morandini and Helena Camargo
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