Vitya and Mohammed perform a piece exploring dialogue between objects and documentary text. In the performance, the two prepare traditional dishes from their cultures - an Arabic kenafah pastry and Jewish chicken dish - while casually conversing. Their conversation touches on everyday struggles, but with a light tone, as if between colleagues. Screens provide historical context on the ingredients and traditions behind the dishes. The performance aims to show how shared rituals like food can build understanding, as the performers find community in cooking together despite their different backgrounds.

1. DEEP HEAT
Vitya and Mohammed
at Wimbledon College of Arts
Theatre
Exploration of an object as a
document and the dialogue it has with
documentary text.

2. The Repast

3. 1. Stage and Story

4. -I remember I took my visa card out of my pocket ....my daughter was on my left helping the lady pack the carrier bags...I pulled out
my visa card...and the bomb went off.
(placing the chicken and vegetables on the baking sheet)
-you set up at eight in the morning; by midday you’ve been stopped at three unofficial checkpoints...told to take your hands out of
your pocket, usually at gunpoint, questioned, searched, asked for papers...you haven’t even reached one of the official checkpoints
where you might have to wait in a queue for an hour...an hour and a half; of course, you give up..you go back to
your village.
(baking the kenafah)

5. PERFORMERS SAY
- I want to be a little bit dramatic. I went with my daughter...she’d come fromTel Aviv.. we went to the Mall
in Jerusalem to buy presents for the holiday of Passover. I remember I brought white and black blouse for my
sister, and for my mother I brought a large ceramic bowl, brown and beige for putting pasta in.
(cutting chicken)
-We’ve been making sweets for five generations. I started learning secrets of the trade from my father
when I was fourteen, and I hope to pass the skills on to my own son who is five now.
(pouring milk in a sauce pan and warming it)
SCREEN
Kenafah is a Levantine cheese pastry soaked in
sweet sugar-based syrup, typical of the regions
belonging
to the former Ottoman Empire.[1] It is a
dessert specialty of the Levant,
especially in Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian
territories,
Israel, Syria and northern Egypt.
SCREEN
Chicken is often the centre of the Shabbat
dinner.
For generations Jews have been making
variations of this recipe
to serve to their families on Friday nights.
Both simple and adaptable,
this recipe is a staple in Jewish kitchens
around the world.

6. Technical Drawing
The kitchen is a universal modern space that has all the
necessary possibilities for both of the meals to be prepared.

7. 2.The Screens andThe History
of Ingredients

8. The dialogue of objects
works on:
- physicality and dynamics
of the action (chopping,
pouring, baking)
- the origin and tradition of
the products (text on
screen)
- the mutual ingredients
The screens represent
the story that is bigger
and longer then the one
told on stage.
The story of tradition.

9. 3.Performers

10. Both the Jewish woman and Arabic man are dressed
casually and simple.They are not trying to look typical
nor as their heroes. Both have the same aprons.
There conversation is light and easy going, as if they
are colleagues that are cooking a meal together.
The emotional facts told to each other (as the exploding
or day long queues) do not astonish them as they do not
astonish any other Israeli or Palestinian citizen.
These stories are part of an everyday life as cooking
a meal.

11. 4. Final

12. -“But you know... even if no one came to my shop at all, I’d still make Kunafa every
day, just to keep the tradition going.“
(both decorating prepared dish with pistachio)

13. The screens stop showing live broadcast after both
the stories are told and smoothly change to a video of
the same hands cleaning the kitchen space after the
cooking. They put back the products, gather the dirty
dishes.The sound of this cleaning becomes louder then
the voices of the performers.
On stage the two performers continue a quiet
conversation and share the food that they prepared with
each other.

14. Outside the theatre there is a kenafah and a
chicken prepared in advance and offered to the
audience to try and share.