Play encourages difficult discussion
SANDTON- Volunteer Man is a play that highlights HIV/Aids, euthanasia and homosexuality.
The play opened at the Auto & General Theatre on the Square and promised to provoke audiences to think about their views on these contentious subjects. The play was brought to the theatre for a limited season with the help of Victor Gordon and TARARAM, the cultural section of the Embassy of Israel in South Africa. It stars acclaimed director and actor Roy Horowitz and member of the Kiryat Shemona Municipal Theatre Ensemble Michael Gamliel, along with Carol Brown as the nun.
Volunteer Man is an Obie award-winning play and received a Gay and Lesbian Alliance Award Against Defamation nomination for best play of the year in the United States. This Israeli production has enjoyed enthusiastic reviews and Horovitz won the best actor award for his role of Adam, the volunteer man. The play is an exploration of a terminally ill patient’s rights. It also considers the appropriateness of the decision another person makes to aid in ending a life. The story is straightforward: a gentle, introverted gay man volunteers to visit a tough drug dealer who is dying from AIDS in a New York hospital. They come from different worlds, with different outlooks on what is right and wrong, but they find a common cause over time.
The play concluded with a Q&A session where a debate about euthanasia was discussed between the audience and the actors.
Horowitz said, “It is important to provoke the discussion [about euthanasia]; we need more public awareness in the Knesset [the legislative branch of the Israeli government].”
According to Rabbi Ari Kievman of Chabad’s Goodness and Kindness Centre, Jewish belief states that even in a person’s last minutes, they are “appreciated and valued”.
“Judaism sees life as the most valuable thing,” added Kievman.
When it comes to Jewish Law, the difference between passive and active euthanasia depends on a person’s stage of life.
“If someone we know is critically ill, we do not want to prolong that person’s life,” said Kievman.
He explained that family or healthcare practitioners may withhold certain medication or treatment if the pain becomes too intense.
“However, active euthanasia is seen as murder, and Judaism forbids it,” he concluded.
