New Haven Independent

Ben-Atar (pictured), a New Haven-based history professor and former Israeli professional basketball player, has added “playwright” to his list of skills. (Click here to read a story about his last play, performed in New Haven.)

His new play drew sold-out crowds and plaudits in D.C. Now it’s moving to the Fringe fest at New York’s Players Theater Aug. 14-23. (Details here.)

The New Republic described Peace Warriors as “a savagely witty satire of elite American academics, and their attitudes towards the Middle East.”

Ben-Atar summarizes his play this way:

“It is evening in the posh New Haven home of married professors Darryl and Scooter Lewis. Everyone wants something from visiting academic superstar GW: Darryl wants his body; Scooter wants a fellowship at his institute; and Israeli peace activist Shlomtzion wants both. Seventeen-year-old Gwen Lewis wants her identity. When morning arrives the covers come off the intricate web of lies and affairs and a battle of words ensues in which politics clash, secrets are revealed, and maximum pain is inflicted.”

Without giving away too much, here is a scene from the script for those who can’t make it to Brooklyn (or those who may wish to get an advance taste):

Darryl
I am ready to leave him.

GW
Just like that.

Darryl
Isn’t that what you have been saying I should do since Gwen was five?

GW
Probably before.

Darryl
Please don’t make light of this. I have been thinking of it for years.

GW
And Gwen.

Darryl
Gwen and I have very little to talk about these days. Her main concerns are Bollywood, beading and boys, in that order. Whenever I mention important things that affect her future or the world around us, she rolls her eyes. She’s already checked out on me.

GW
And you on her?

Darryl
What are you talking about?

GW
I sensed some tension.

Darryl
Jesus, you sure are clueless about parenting. She’s seventeen. Of course there is tension. But in a year she’ll be in college and will never return to New Haven.

GW
She might go to Yale.

Darryl
(Gets up to pace thru the room) There is a greater chance she’ll be living in a Delhi slum with an illiterate jeweler than go to Yale. You heard her. She doesn’t want to go to college. (Mockingly) She wants to find herself in the Ganges … and, if I had my guess, get as far away from here … from me … as possible.

GW
(Self-satisfied smile) It could be worse; she could end up like your sister-in-law in an Orthodox settlement in the West Bank.

Darryl
Could you please dial down the volume on your wit?

GW
I can’t, I’m English. All right, all right.

Darryl
I have been pulling that sack of dead wood for too long. You remember Columbia. Scooter was supposed to be the star - and me the afterthought. (Gets up, paces away from GW) But now it’s the reverse and I have to do everything— the job, the socializing and the parenting. He has to understand that this has been an intolerable situation, and one that I have put up with for too many miserably stressful years.