Stage Review - Almonds Blossom in Deir Yassin (Dunya Productions)

Stage Review - Almonds Blossom in Deir Yassin
Presented By: Dunya Productions - Seattle, WA
Show Run: October 23 - November 15, 2025
Date Reviewed: Thursday, October 23, 2025 (Opening Night)
Run Time: 80 Minutes (no intermission)
Reviewed By: Sameer Arshad

In this breath-taking new work, written and directed by Palestinian-American playwright, Hanna Eady, we are presented with a surrealist exploration of selective memory, deliberate erasure, lifelong guilt, intergenerational trauma and the manifesting of cosmic truth. It is a profound voyage through time and space, telling a gripping story about the relentless pursuit of inevitable justice and the intense need to be made whole and included in a sociological narrative that is rigged with exclusionary forces designed to strip people of their rights, dignity and identity.

The play revolves around the real-life events of the Deir Yassin Massacre, a war crime committed in 1948 by Irgun, Lehi, Haganah and Palmach militias, about 5 kilometers west of Jerusalem, on a site that currently contains a psychiatric hospital run by the Israeli government. It was the first war crime of its kind (and scale) in British Mandate Palestine and set the tone for the waves of violence that have impacted the region ever since.

In this story, set in 2018, we meet Gad (Tom Wiseley), an elderly ex-member of the Haganah militia, who was directly involved in the massacre 70 years ago. As the play opens, Gad meets Dr. Levi (Alyssa Norling) at the psychiatric hospital, who takes charge of him as he prepares to receive an award for the crimes he committed in that very location.

Through a series of supernatural confrontations and thrilling dramatic moments, we discover each character's motives, secrets and goals, as the characters plumb the human condition for any semblance of a resolution that satisfies the anguish pouring out from their souls.

In a phenomenally powerful performance, Nabra Nelson's Amal lays bare the failures of our international systems of justice and cross-examines our notions of what we accept as "civilized values". Nabra commands the stage, dazzling us with her evocative monologues and enchanting us with her elaborate sweeps through Gad's conflicted mind. Costumed mind-blowingly by Tianxing Yan, she floats through the scenes capturing the audience in her quest for justice and being made whole. 

Alongside her, Tom Wiseley delivers a moving performance as both the tormentor and the tormented, oscillating skillfully between extremes of indignation, bloodthirst, guilt, despair, regret, longing and unapologetic arrogance.

This is supported by Alyssa Norling's Dr. Levi, who represents a modern-day zeitgeist that has solidified into an internationally-supported military-industrial complex ready to escalate its violence into greater levels of genocide. Through her bone-chilling performance, we explore the self-righteous zeal of a political system that tries to convince its followers that letting go of their humanity is somehow in their best interests. We, as the audience, are drawn to pity Dr. Levi, as she delves further into the moral low ground, as she simultaneously presents herself as a healer, in a cruel twisted irony.

Many of the emotional peaks of the play are reached by Bradley Goodwill's Zidan, who appears perpetually jailed in the ghostly visions of the Israeli characters. Through his heartfelt appeals to humanity, a pristine desperation is brought forth to us by him,  to question, among ourselves, why we ever felt that collective punishment was a worthy outcome, why we accept the killing of innocent people, even children, to make amends for a previous killing of innocent people. 

The technical achievements of this play must be applauded, particularly the triple interplay between scenic (Parmida Ziaei, Craig Jacobrown, Douglas Loewen, Kree Arvanitas), projections (Leo Mayberry) and lighting (Tom Wiseley). These three elements come together in the central structure of a full sized almond tree sculpted onto the stage. It is projected upon and lit in very creative ways, adding richness to the storytelling and arguably forming a fifth character that breathes itself into the production. Perhaps "Almond Tree" should be credited as an actor in the program. This cleverness of the technical team behind what is done with the tree is itself something to recognize and celebrate. 

Cycles of violence come to an end when truth and reconciliation are prioritized. It starts with actually accepting that crimes were actually committed and the price for those crimes must be paid. In this show, we are presented with a direction towards that acceptance. The audience is invited to justify, to themselves, the concept of "Never Again", in a more wide-ranging, comprehensively inclusive way. By exploring the first chapter of this ongoing genocide, we can all be brought closer to ending it in the present, opening a new pathway for mutual peace.

Run, don't walk, to Cherry Street Village to watch Almonds Blossom in Deir Yassin. You have never seen anything like it and you never will again.

Dunya Productions’ Almonds Blossom in Deir Yassin runs on stage at Cherry Street Village through November 15. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.dunyaproductions.org/.

Photo credit: June Rugh