Knock Knock, starring Niv Petel, runs Oct. 21 to 29 at the Meridian Arts Centre.keith hiro/Supplied
The Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company in Toronto presents Israeli writer/performer Niv Petel and his poignant one-man show, Knock Knock. He portrays a single mother whose job as an army liaison officer is to deliver the worst possible news to the parents of young sons and daughters killed during compulsory military service. Her world is turned upside down when the time comes for her only son to wear the army uniform.
Performed in English, the monodrama by the actor trained in Israel and London premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2017. All ticket-sale proceeds from the run at the Meridian Arts Centre (Oct. 21 to 29) go to the Association for the Soldiers of Israel-Canada and to Beit Halochem Canada (in aid of disabled Israeli veterans). Petel spoke to The Globe and Mail from his flat in Tel Aviv.
Petel said he finds himself quoting the show now that Israel is at war.keith hiro/Supplied
With Israel at war, what is your own day-to-day life like?
We have red alerts every now and then. At different times of the day there are sirens, and there is also a phone app that tells us that we have a minute and a half to take cover. There is a public shelter a few blocks from here, but I’ve given up trying to get there in time. I just stay here, breathe and wait. The Iron Dome destroys the missiles.
You’re talking about the air defence system.
Yes. On the morning the attacks started, I woke up to to the sound of the alarm. Explosions occurred in the sky above me. It went on like this all day. In the evening, the Iron Dome actually missed – a rocket fell in my street and demolished two houses. After that, I moved to another city in the north for a couple of nights.
How does all this affect your relationship with your one-man show?
The text is rippling back at me. I find myself quoting the show. The mother in the show says she has no idea how people do it, living in this loop of bloodshed. But she also says we somehow manage to live around it or above it or in spite of it. I suppose that is the best way to describe it – that we live in spite of it.
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You served in the military, yes?
For three years. I operated radios, sitting on a top of mountain. I was responsible for the encoding and the frequencies to make sure the soldiers in the valley could communicate with each other.
Niv Petel plays a single mother who works as a military liaison in Knock Knock.Supplied
In Knock Knock, you embody a single mother, Ilana, who is a military liaison officer. Why did you decide to make her single?
What I have learnt about art throughout the years, is that if you want to get to the heart, you must bypass the brain. In the same way that a painter throws paint on the blank canvas, no questions asked, and the painting reveals itself to them, I first do, and I only ask myself why later. So to your question, I didn’t plan or made a decision for Ilana to be a single mom in the play. It just unfolded like that.
And what is the impact of that unfolding?
Observing my piece from the outside, I can suggest that making her a single mom raises the stakes of her situation. Not only does she have an only son who wants to serve frontline and not only does she know bereavement up closely as a liaison officer, she has no partner to share the burden of her dilemma with. Her son is the only person she has in the world. She has a lot to lose.
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What kind of research did you do for the mother character?
Her backstory is a mixture of my own beloved mom’s life story and invented details I’ve put together from my experience of growing up in Israel. I also read interviews with bereaved mothers in the newspapers.
The audience learns about Ilana's son through Ilana herself.keith hiro/Supplied
The audience learns about the son through his mother. How did you build a character that is neither seen nor heard?
There are no sound cues. When I need sound I create it with my own voice. By giving the audience enough clues with my tone of voice, the direction of my gaze, the tension of my body, and of course the text itself, the audience can tell exactly where the son is, how old he is, does he raise his voice, what he is saying and doing. And so the son’s character is forged.
This is the intimate and immersive nature of a one-person show.
Yes. Each and every audience member will complete the picture slightly different in their imagination and have a unique experience. Even if they don’t want to, they have to participate within their own mind.
This interview has been edited and condensed.