Between the River and the Sea review – an Israeli Palestinian feels the pressure to pick a side

Royal Court theatre, London
Yousef Sweid shows wit and charm as he tackles his divorce and custody battle, while the larger struggle closes in around him

This is not a political show, Yousef Sweid announces at the outset, despite the provocation of its title and the heap of protest banners on stage. Sweid, an Israeli Palestinian living in Berlin, is just here to talk about his divorce, he says.

The Israel-Palestine conflict can’t help but raise its head nonetheless in Isabella Sedlak and Sweid’s play, staged at Edinburgh last year. Sweid is a Christian Arab Palestinian who grew up in Haifa with an Israeli passport and friends on either side of the divide. He is divorcing his second wife, who is Israeli, and has children who are half-Jewish Berliners with Austrian blood from descendants of the Holocaust.