About the work
“Between the River and the Sea” is an autobiographical solo play written by the Palestinian-Israeli actor Yousef Sweid together with the director Isabella Sedlak. It premiered on 5 April 2025 in Studio Я at the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, produced by BOW Production in co-production with the Gorki; Sedlak directed, Sweid performs alone, and the music is by Thomas Moked Blum. It is performed in English and runs for just over an hour.
Plot
Sweid tells his own life story: a childhood in Haifa as the son of a Christian Arab family, a Jewish kindergarten, growing up between Arabic and Hebrew, early encounters with racism. Then come love affairs and two marriages to Jewish Israeli women, and life as an adopted Berliner whose children are growing up Jewish and Arab. Towards the end, 7 October catches up with him, and everyone demands that he take a clear side. Along the way he slips into the voices of the people he has met.
Cultural significance
The title alludes to the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean and thus to one of the most contested slogans of the Middle East conflict; the play answers it with a conciliatory, humorous account of overlapping identities. After its Berlin premiere it was shown at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2025 and ran at the Royal Court Theatre in London in spring 2026; critics singled out how the evening brings humour and political seriousness together.