Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney were working around Hollywood gatekeepers long before Matt Walsh rocked the documentary scene.
The Irish journalists knew the progressive arts world wouldn’t help them set the record straight on the death of Michael Brown or the Russian collusion hoax.
So they did it on their own, with a little help from crowdfunding.
And, most recently, “October 7.”
The harrowing play lets Israeli survivors of Hamas’ barbaric attack share what they experienced on Oct. 7, 2023. The couple produced the play for a six-week run in New York City over the summer using actual testimonies to fuel the drama.
Now, they’re bringing “October 7” to a college campus near you.
OCTOBER 7, a verbatim play drawn from @PhelimMcAleer @annmcelhinney interviews with survivors, will make its West Coast debut via a free staged reading at UCLA on the attacks’ anniversary. and they’re currently in talks to bring the play to more colleges: https://t.co/RB6lzhWTuT
— Ashley Lee (@cashleelee) September 5, 2024
The play’s performance at Princeton earlier this month went off without a hitch. The next stop on the college tour may be different.
McAleer and McElhinney’s email newsletter shared news, gleaned from Instagram posts, that pro-Palestinina protestors plan to buy tickets to the show and “disrupt” the performance. The production will be held at UCLA on Oct. 7 – the one-year anniversary of the terror attacks.
“They want to start a riot and make it impossible for us to perform the play,” the newsletter said.
The HiT ‘cast spoke to McAleer and McElhinney earlier this week about what it took to produce a show like “October 7” given the violent protests we’ve already seen across the country.
“We were the only play in New York that needed a permanent police presence,” McAleer told the HiT ‘cast. “What kind of a world are we living in?”
“New York is home to the biggest Jewish population outside Tel Aviv, but it’s unsafe to put on a Jewish play giving voice to Israelis in New York,” he added.
McAleer said he kept one part of the security plans quiet during the show’s Big Apple run. His team hired an armed security guard to be on-site for every performance in addition to other precautions.
“That’s what we had to do to make the actors comfortable, so they could concentrate on their art,” he said. “I’m not sure a play about Palestine or Gaza from a Gazan’s perspective would need police protection outside.”
Thankfully, nothing untoward happened. The show went on for several weeks. The material still kept some actors from appearing in the show, the duo shared.
“A lot of actors didn’t want to do this play because they feared it might harm their career,” he said.
It seems natural for journalists to cover both the show and the potential for danger lurking around the edges. Instead, the vast majority of news platforms ignored “October 7.”
RELATED: FILM CRITICS SHUN ‘SCREAMS BEFORE SILENCE’
“The New York Times, the paper of choice for probably most of the Jewish community in New York, couldn’t find the time in six weeks to come and see the play,” McElhinney said. “It’s very telling and very disappointing.”
She also didn’t expect to see some actors attempt to change the play’s dialogue. That’s normally not a major issue – collaboration is part of the creative process. The play, like the couple’s “Ferguson” production a few years earlier, used “Verbatim Theater” as its north star.
That storytelling mode uses source material – court transcripts, testimonials and more – to guide what the characters say. Yet several Jewish actors sought to tone down the incendiary material, McElhinney recalled.
“Two Irish Catholics might be the exact people who needed to do this,” she said.
One reason the duo made “October 7?” The media’s rush to memory hole the tragedy. The recent “Screams Before Silence,” which also gave voice to Israeli survivors, got overwhelmingly ignored by both film critics and news platforms.
McAleer and McElhinney were in Ireland last year on Oct. 7 and watched local media outlets immediately report on Israeli’s possible retaliation over the atrocities committed against the Jewish people.
“It’s one of the reasons why the play is so important. It’s getting Oct. 7 back in the headlines,” she said.
Hear more about the play’s reception in Princeton and what the couple thinks of the Right’s new culture war projects on The Hollywood in Toto Podcast.
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