Before the Bomb

Iris Bahr's career to date has been about as varied as the many characters she embodies in her latest show. The thirty-something American-Israeli performer, writer, and director has worked for Israeli intelligence, appeared in assorted episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, conducted neuropsychological research at Stanford University, written and published a memoir based on her travels in the Far East (Dork Whore: My Travels Through Asia as a Twenty-Year-Old Pseudo-Virgin), and personified a celebrity- and politician-boffing Russian prostitute by the name of Svetlana on a weekly NPR commentary show. In Dai, a solo piece set in a Tel Aviv café just moments before a suicide bomber wreaks havoc on peoples' lives, Bahr brings 11 characters spanning a broad cross-section of Israeli society to life. A young American soldier serving in the Israeli militia, a snobbish Israeli expat now living in New York, a Palestinian academic, an American actor and a hard-line West Bank settler -- among other lively characters -- share their stories with us, unaware of their imminent fate. The show, whose title means "enough" in Hebrew, enjoyed two critically-acclaimed runs Off-Broadway and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and UK Stage Award.
Jan. 10-13, 8 p.m., 2008