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"Let Me Tell You" is a series of columns from our expert editors about NYC living, including the best things to do, where to eat and drink, and what to see at the theater. They publish each Tuesday so you’re hearing from us each week. Last month, News Editor Anna Rahmanan sang the praises of Job, a suspenseful East Village show that's closing at the end of this month.
Although in his 1889 essay “The Decay of Lying: An Observation,” Oscar Wilde opined that “life imitates art far more than art imitates life,” a poignant play at The Public is proof that art can mimic life in almost terrifying detail.
The Ally opens at the Berkeley, California home of Jewish college professor Asaf (Josh Radnor). The audience quickly learns that Asaf, who was raised in Berkeley, California by his Israeli immigrant parents, is devoted to his life in academia. He is a progressive and self-defined atheist who seems to prize logic, science and factuality above all other credos.
After meeting with a former Black student of his, Baron (Elijah Jones), Asaf delves into an internal battle when asked to sign a manifesto that seeks justice for Baron’s cousin Deronte, a victim of police violence, and, in the same breath, calls for “sanctions on the apartheid state of Israel.”
And so begins an over three-hour-long dissection of American collegiate life, specifically analyzing the at-times-subtle and sometimes direct antisemitism that has plagued many schools in recent years, while also discussing the centuries-long conflict in the Middle East and police brutality in America in minute detail.
Although often infuriating because of the protagonist’s inability to take a clear stance among a group of people so intensely in tune with their own feelings about the issues at play, The Ally still resonates.
Here’s why I believe it is a must-see show of the spring 2024 season:
1. October 7, 2023
Shockingly, playwright Itamar Moses finished writing the production before the horrific attack on Israeli civilians carried out by Hamas terrorists in Israel on October 7, 2023. Somehow, the conversations carried out by all the characters seem like they are directly related to the attack and mimick the reactions that folks around the world have had since October.
2. Everyone’s point of view is included
Whether having skin in the game or not, most people in America today have an opinion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a strong one at that.
The handful of characters on stage poignantly reflect that diversity of takes, a fact that, paradoxically, ends up making portions of the audience uncomfortable at times.
It seems like everyone sitting in the theater is thinking, ”Why would they give credence to that world view when mine is so right?” throughout the show. As I said: art does, indeed, imitate life.
3. The Dialogue
"It often seems like the arguments, on all sides, have been transcribed from personal experience or the news," writes Jesse Green in his review of the show for the New York Times—and that’s exactly what makes The Ally so wonderful and so maddening at the same time, perfectly echoing the emotions that the situation has given birth to in the real world.
Predictably, the two characters most familiar with the Middle Eastern conflict, a Palestinian pupil (Michael Khalid Karadsheh) and a religious Jewish graduate student (Ben Rosenfield), deliver the two most memorable monologues of the play, each one of them imbued with the anger, hopelessness and devotion to their respective cultures that have come to unfortunately almost define the situation.
4. The Ending
Not to give anything away, but The Ally doesn’t really end. There is no resolution despite the in-depth exploration of the topics at hand.
And yet, audience members will likely leave feeling even more in touch with their own take on the worldly conflicts, likely because of Asaf's refusal to express his own point of view.
Although watching The Ally will probably not change your position on the topics, it will surely highlight the importance of getting your facts straight before formulating an opinion on such high-consequence matters.