Performers: Wassim Bashara and Pablo Ariel

The show lasts 60 minutes without an interval.

Neighbours is a meeting of worlds, and a meeting of friends. Wassim Bashara, an Arab musician, and Pablo Ariel, a Jewish actor, come together in a unique exploration of their differences and human similarities. They talk, they play, and tell each other stories in different languages - without words. Pablo is a world renowned creator of 'object theater', and Wassim is a virtuoso musician on Oud and Violin - in their own artistic languages, from their own cultural backgrounds, these two artists, friends, and neighbours, meet, explore and enjoy their common humanity.
Neighbours is a warm, surprising, and intimate performance, revealing itself to the audience like a poetry book without words. Each 'page' is a new world: a world of music, a world of puppetry, a world of humor and connection. Pieces of sponge, salt-cellars, and baking bowls dancing to original musical compositions become symbols of hope and co-existence in this charming encounter between an Arab musician and a Jewish actor: neighbours and friends.

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The Galilee Multicultural Theatre
A visual theatre where the actors play with objects, puppets and their body using almost no words. The theatre developed a very personal stage language. The group includes actors, musicians, artists, environmentalists and human rights activists.
The members of the Theatre Company form a human mosaic representative of the diverse population of the region Jews and Arabs. They come from various cities, villages, development towns and kibbutzim in the Western Galilee area. Some have been living in the area for generations, while others are immigrants from all corners of the world.
The Theatre Company has performed in theatres, festivals, and schools all around the country and the world. The Theatre produced also series of educative videos. The productions utilize non-verbal forms of communication, so language is no obstacle, and multilingual audiences can enjoy the show together and interact with each other.
The theatre is sponsored by the Israeli Ministries of Education, Environment and Foreign Affairs, all of whom have praised the performances for their effectiveness in conveying powerful, profound messages.
The theatre searches for a way of communication, in which language will not be an obstacle, in order to give a multilingual audience a chance to meet and appreciate one another, communicate, exchange ideas and  together enjoy the meeting and the show.

... Together, both performers explore their differences and similarities with a minimum of language, using humor, movement and music, and from their very different backgrounds, these two artists, friends and neighbors, celebrate their common humanity in a manner which encourages us to value and respect other cultures.
Philip O'Brien, The Canberra Times, 5 February 2005

Neighbors is a show about the reality of cooperation. It teams Arab musician Wassim Bashara with Jewish Pablo Ariel, actor and gentle manipulator of varied images and puppets. The result is one hour that may very well leave an audience thinking about some of the glimpses of life in Middle Eastern history that it provides.
... you may find by the end that both images and stories have made you think anew about various reconciliations.
Alanna MacLean, The Canberra Times, 9 February 2005

The show was performed in the Jerusalem International Puppet festival, in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, in the Meeting for a Better World in Puerto Rico, in the National Multicultural Festival in Canberra Australia …
They may seem like polar opposites, but Israeli artists Pablo Ariel, who is a Jew and Wassim Bashara who is an Arab come together to create theater that celebrates their common humanity.
Clara Chow, The Straits Times, Singapore, 18 February 2005

This performance has been supported by the Embassy of Israel in Belgrade.