Reading Hebron

David E. Kemp is a drama professor at Queen’s University and the
author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

Jason Sherman, a playwright-in-residence at the Tarragon Theatre in
Toronto since 1992, has received a Governor General’s Literary Award
for drama, a Chalmers Canadian Play Award, and a drama award from the
Canadian Authors Association.

This play is a dramatization of the investigation conducted by
Toronto’s Nathan Abramowitz into the Hebron Massacre, in which a
Jewish settler murdered 29 Muslims at prayer. What is most remarkable
about Reading Hebron is Sherman’s ability to make us care passionately
about the fate of Jew and Palestinian alike. From what would appear to
be material unsuitable for dramatization, he has crafted a piece of
theatre that is forceful, dramatic, intellectually stimulating, and
engrossing. The play’s 60-odd characters are intended to be played by
just four actors.