If you saw a man beaten and bleeding on a street, what would you do?
In “Sixteen Wounded,” a Jewish man named Hans stops, pays the man’s medical bills and gives him a job at his bakery to work off his debt.
The victim is Mahmoud, a Palestinian who says if the roles were reversed, he’d urinate on his kind Samaritan. And he does not use the word “urinate.”
Wait: An old Holocaust survivor and a young Palestinian, ahem, “medical student,” working things out on the neutral ground of mid-’90s Amsterdam?
Such is the unlikely but incendiary premise of Eliam Kraiem’s patient parable. It’s one that Broadway audiences ignored in 2004 — no doubt in part because of Mahmoud’s very suggestion that the Nazi extermination of Jews parallels Israel’s present occupation of his homeland.
It gets no dicier than to even suggest there that the oppressed has become the oppressor.
But “Sixteen Wounded” is not out to deepen or solve a crisis that has baffled the greatest diplomats of our time. Instead it’s a measured, balanced tale that (thankfully) relegates politics and religion to the back burner.
The play is inescapably an “unlikely friendship,” which, in theater-speak, is usually a nice euphemism for “forced,” “unbelievable” or “eye-rolling.” But while the starting point is pure contrivance, the ending is brutally, necessarily honest.
With its vivid, sympathetic characters and strong production values, director Len Matheo has taken the Evergreen Players out of their comfort zone in order to bring comfort to audiences whose minds are open to a broader conversation on the caprice of love, the definition of family and the burden of identity.
“Sixteen Wounded” is a love story — four love stories, actually — centering on the father-son bond that rises like bread between seething Mahmoud (Wadi Muhaisen) and melancholy Hans (Rich Beall). Both have intriguing bonds with interesting women: Mahmoud with bakery assistant Nora (Meredith Crosley); Hans with a longtime hooker Sonya (Sherrie Scott) he’d secretly like to marry.
Then there’s a late-arriving brother (David Blumenstock) who forces Mahmoud to choose between blood bonds: His heart calls him to stay with this makeshift family he has crafted in Holland; his DNA calls him to heed a hatred buried deep in his bones.
Sure it’s naive to think time and distance might soothe Mahmoud’s urge for revenge, though that’s just what happened for scores of Holocaust survivors. Then again the very suggestion of a comparison there speaks to the play’s trickiest conceit. Is he a perpetrator? Or a victim who dared to fight back? It all comes down to identity. “We kill them and we’re called terrorists,” he says, “but when they kill us, they are called soldiers.”
The performances are surprisingly deep, especially given that Muhaisen is a novice. Surrounded by pros, you’d never know this is the Denver lawyer’s first play — at least until the layered demands of the third act reveal him incapable of embodying the hair-trigger intensity the climax demands. But overall, it’s a remarkably nuanced ensemble.
New York critics attacked this intelligent play for not breaking new ground on the Israel-Palestine conflict, but how on Earth could one ever saddle a playwright with that burden? “Sixteen Wounded” seems more a plea for understanding. It merely calls a conversation to order.
True, it pontificates; it dabbles in sentiment; it overplays the baking metaphor. But given the most recent bloody outburst between Israel and Palestine, how can we not at least pull up a chair and listen?
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“Sixteen Wounded” *** (out of four stars)
Peace talks. Evergreen Players at Center Stage, 27608 Fireweed Drive. Written by Eliam Kraiem. Directed by Len Matheo. Through April 5. 2 hours, 30 minutes. 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays (no performances March 27-29). $14-$18. 303-674-4934,
This week’s video podcast:
Running Lines at . . . “Sixteen Wounded”
This week, Denver Post theater critic John Moore talks with playwright Eliam Kraiem and captures highlights from the opening night talkback with Evergreen Players director Len Matheo along with cast members including Richard Beall, Wadi Muhaisen and David Blumenstock. Run time: 9 minutes. Recorded Match 6, 2009.
This week’s best bet
“Leadville or Bust” and “The Black Box Burlesque”
For the first time since the 1930s, a dedicated burlesque theater is opening in Denver. Reyna Von Vett presents “Leadville or Bust” early evenings at the New Denver Civic’s cabaret theater, before turning things over (most nights) to Burlesque As It Was, the iconic company established in Denver a decade ago by Vivienne VaVoom (Michelle Baldwin). “Leadville” is a playful revue of genuine 1880s burlesque tunes like “Ragtime Cowboy Joe,” “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “Seeing Denver.” The night of double-entendre and can-can dancing is hosted by “Cora Vette,” who takes us back to a time when sex and scandal were all about corsets, tights and bawdy songs. The all-new late-night show, “The Black Box Burlesque,” taps into the 1930-60 classic era of burlesque, when the art form was much more tease than strip. The show features classic samples of the fan dance, screen dance and the balloon-pop number. It promises to be a sparkling extravaganza. “Leadville” plays 7 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays; “Burlesque” plays at 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays only through May 31 at 721 Santa Fe Drive. $15-$25 each (discount for both). 303-309-3773, King Soopers stores, , or , or .
This week’s other theater openings
“Beauty, Brains and Personality”
In this Emmett Loverde comedy, three girlfriends who meet for a monthly dinner party learn to define themselves beyond any one-dimensional view. Through March 23. Arvada Festival Playhouse, 5665 Olde Wadsworth Blvd., 303-422-4090 or
“Nunsense” and “Nunsense A-Men”
Can you believe those five zany nuns from Hoboken are still trying to raise money to bury their felled fellow sisters, done in by tainted soup? Women perform the musical on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Starting next week, men (of the “A-Men” title) will perform the exact same musical on Wednesdays and Fridays. Through May 23. Boulder’s Dinner Theatre, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., 303-449-6000 or
“Steel Magnolias”
Robert Harling’s ubiquitous Southern weeper about small-town Southern women who come to Truvy’s Beauty Salon to chat, counsel, criticize and comfort one another. Through April 4. E-Project, 9797 W. Colfax Ave., Lakewood, 303-232-0363 or
“This Just In”
Magic Moments’ annual pop-music revue integrates disabled and able-bodied cast members of all ages and experience. This year’s show is set in a Baltimore TV station, and the 250-member cast takes on songs like “It’s Raining Men” and “Rock This Town.” Through Sunday. Littleton High School, 199 E. Littleton Blvd. 303-607-7555 or
Compiled by John Moore
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