The mission of identifying life

A play based in reality

Reservist and playwright Roee Joseph spent sixty days in Shura military base, somewhere in the center of the country. For sixty days, he partook in one of the most complex tasks known to the human mind – identifying victims of a massacre.

For long hours, Roee and the other soldiers recruited for the mission looked for any identifying marks that would facilitate recognition of the dead, and allow burial. On his breaks, Roee took out his computer, and began writing. He wrote what he saw, heard, experienced: thoughts, moments that had unfolded before his eyes, an exact transcription of what was said around him, and spontaneous interviews with the ones who were there.

Shura is a deep, poetic, honest and sometimes funny observation about hardship. Shura understands that in order to bury something you need to know what it is. Shura is a brave and exposed attempt to allow us all to understand what was there, and, perhaps, to put it to proper rest.