#15 The Othering of Palestinian and Israeli people in Birds of a kind (EN)

Ptáčci (Eng. Birds of a kind) is a theatre play written by the Lebanese-Canadian author Wajdi Mouawad, which explores the Palestine-Israel conflict. The first showing took place in Paris in 2017, produced by Mouawad himself. He developed the production with help from Israeli and Palestinian members of his ensemble, which allowed it to be a staging of many languages and the delicate and nuanced interaction between them.

The play was also translated into multiple languages, such as German, Hebrew and English, which allowed its multinational intention to be further realized.

A recent staging of Ptáčci took place within the international Brno Theatre Festival “Divadelní svět” on 22 May 2025. The production by Národní divadlo moravskoslezské, directed by Aminata Keita, was staged in Městské divadlo Brno, as a three-hour play interrupted by a break.

Ptáčci addresses questions of belonging, migration, religion, love and death: “What is a life lived between two worlds? What is a migrant? A refugee? A mutant?”

The performance starts with merely a ladder from a library on an otherwise empty stage. A young woman is standing on it, seemingly indulging in a book by لحسن بن محمد الوزانالفاسي (al-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad al-Wazzān al-Fāsī), as a young man enters the stage. He rips the book out of her hand in an agitated manner. It is a meaningful book for him, he explains and starts a conversation. In a series of happenings, we see them fall in love. Them, that is the German-Israeli genetics researcher Eitan and the Arab-American PhD student Wahida, who studies questions of identity within the texts of the diplomat and scholar الحسن بن محمد الوزان الفاسي. This historical figure lived in multiple cultural contexts and was forcefully converted to Christianity. His inclusion reflects the experiences of Eitan’s father David, who will later learn about his true origins. Born in a raided Palestinian village, stolen and brought up by an Israeli soldier, David grew up believing he was an Israeli Jew. The shock from learning the truth led to him experiencing a stroke and later death.