THE GATE

written and performed by Robbie Gringras

The inaugural offering of Voices Festival Productions' 2022
Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival:
Losing/Finding Home
The 1st of 4 festival productions this year!
July 21 – 24, 2022
LIVE, IN-PERSON PERFORMANCE
WITH COMMUNITY DISCUSSION

To be open or closed? 
A yellow iron gate stands between a small kibbutz and a neighboring Arab village.
Should it always be closed? Always open? 
Udi, who lost his brother in the 1948 war, wants it shut.
Yiftach, an aging peacenik, must signal openness to his neighbors.
And what of Amal, a caterer from the village? She just wants to get home before the gate closes.
How can we remain open? When must we close up?  
Do good fences make good neighbors or distant enemies?

Robbie Gringras presents this compelling new show with a lightness of touch and
depth of emotion that’s been the hallmark of his displays of physical story theater
over two decades of international performance.

THIS SUMMER AT:

Capital Fringe Venue: W. Washington Theatre, Formerly Forever 21 Georgetown DC
3222 M Street NW | Washington, DC 20007

Show Times:

Thursday, July 21 @6:00 pm

Friday, July 22 @7:45 pm

Saturday, July 23 @7:00 pm

Sunday, July 24 @12:00 pm

WAshington DC Press

“A gripping 45-minute solo show that captures Arab–Israeli tensions with compassion and a touch of humor… Gringras gives us an artist’s insight, not an overtly political one, with thoughtfulness, drama, humor, and prayer. The performance beautifully opens on the early morning call to prayer for all Muslims ringing from the speakers and ends with the offering of a Hebrew prayer. The very last word uttered is perfect — it’s the affirmation that is common among all the Abrahamic faiths: Amen”
DC Theatre Arts

“...What makes this production so wonderful is that it manages to look at both the big stuff and the little stuff with equal interest and respect...the result is a thoughtful, engaging play about the different ways we view and interact with our world.

”...Paints a beautiful, clear picture of the communities central to the story. With a bare stage and a single actor, this performance could have felt very minimalist, but Gringras' rich storytelling transports the audience to the Galilee and brings each character (and even some inanimate objects) to life... This nuanced approach encourages the audience to be more open in turn, creating an eagerness to listen.

”The effect is mesmerizing and powerful.”
Broadway World

“Gringras is not merely a storyteller and orator, but a skilled mime who uses movement to show an increasingly comedic exchange with provocations and acts of sabotage between the two men of principle. At once a fable, a satire, and a docudrama in which names have been changed, The Gate poses no simple solutions but humanizes three people from different worlds who may never understand one another.”
Washington City Paper

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Robbie Gringras is a British-born Israeli performer/writer/educator living on the top of a hill in the Galilee. His solo shows have performed throughout Europe, Hong Kong, Australia, Russia, North and Central America, in English, Spanish, and Hebrew.

The Gate is Robbie’s ninth physical story theater show to tour internationally, as he continues to explore the potential of solo story theater to stretch the heart of the social self. After performing the Mahabharata in the UK with Gregory Thompson’s AANDBC Theater Company many years ago, he co-founded his own physical story theater company called Besht Tellers – performing Jewish-themed story theater on London’s West End and throughout the world. Since emigrating to Israel, he has taught at Israel’s main theater schools, directed several plays, and his self-written solo shows – which include About the Oranges, That’s Why I’m (Still) Here, The Gift, and Shabbes! (The Neverending War Over Israel's Day of Rest) – perform throughout the world in English, Hebrew, and Spanish. During the pandemic, he created Stories for Lockdown! Tales from the Hill.

Robbie Gringras is also a writer and educator. His new book, “Stories for the Sake of Argument,” written with Abi Dauber Sterne, is selling like hot-cakes on Amazon, and together with Abi he heads up the For the Sake of Argument non-profit exploring the pedagogy of argument. Robbie lives with his wife Dorit, a magical stained-glass artist, on the top of a hill in the Galilee, and they have two adult kids.

www.robbiegringras.com/the-gate

FROM THE ARTIST

Nobody really knows what the world will look and feel like after the Coronacrisis, but I have a feeling my new show will be received more fully.

What do I mean by “fully”?

Presenting the show to mainly progressive-leaning audiences has been, in a sense, too "easy". Because they have already made their minds up about the characters. Yiftach, the guy who believes in keeping the gate open (his name in Hebrew is literally “he will open”) is always received more easily than the guy who believes in keeping the gate shut.

It’s a natural consequence of culture and language: The opposite of open is closed, and the moment these adjectives are parleyed into personality traits, open is always going to be better than closed.

The character in the show who wants the gate to be closed, the security-conscious guy, Yochanan, is always less liked. That isn’t a problem in and of itself, but I still need him to be heard. If the audience doesn’t find itself agreeing with both sides of the conflict, it makes for boring theater.

Now, with Corona and all, I think when I eventually go back to performing, the show will be heard differently.

First, I think we are now beginning to reach a more instinctive appreciation of the difference between physical separation and emotional separation. As we avoid physical proximity with elderly loved ones, we do not avoid emotional connection. Putting a physical barrier in the way of our coming together does not necessarily imply emotional rejection.

Second, we have no choice but to begin to value timely, discriminate, barriers. Tragically, opening or closing borders is now not only about immigration policy, but also about national and global health.

The Gate doesn’t address Corona, and the gate in the story is not about quarantine. But the words “open” and “closed” may well gain different associations, reverberating in additional directions.

In some hearts, in some connotations, perhaps the opposite of “open” might also be “safe”?

Coming Fall 2022:

Part II of VFP’s “Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival: Losing / Finding Home”