The Band’s Visit

February 2018 

The Band’s Visit 

The Band’s Visit. By Itamar Moses and David Yazbek. Atlantic, Feb. 2018. The Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York.

“An Egyptian band ends up stranded in a small town in Israel, and nothing really happens.” The tagline of the show, as well as the very first moment, sums up this quaint story quite well. The play follows several different members of the stranded Egyptian band as they navigate the one night that they are stuck in the small Israeli town and how their presence changes both the town and the band for the better. What could easily have been a play that brought up racial tensions between muslims and jews refreshingly highlighted the similarities between people, not the differences. The best way I can describe this show was that it ended up sneaking up on me. Initially watching it I wasn’t overly impressed by the several mini stories that it put together, which were all very down to earth, dealing with the everydayness of life. The music was sensational, and a real tribute to middle eastern styles that are not common in North America, but I probably would have graded the show a “C” as I left the theatre. But the more I thought about it, the more I loved what this show was doing. It told small stories about real people’s lives, and addressed racial and religious tension through nothing more than the accents of the characters, while addressing what people can learn about one another if they simply sit down and talk. The show describes a Jewish family watching Egyptian TV as “a jasmine wind,” which is clearly a metaphor for the band members, and also how the production affected me, a refreshing, uplifting production about what brings people together, not what tears them apart.