A play for Caryl Churchill

Tell her she’s wrong.
Tell her she’s lying to people.
Tell her she doesn’t know our history.
Don’t tell her that.
Don’t pay attention to her. It’s what she wants.
Tell her we’re not paying attention to her.
Don’t tell her that.
Don’t frighten her.
Don’t tell her about the attacks that will happen.
Tell her about the attacks that will happen.
Tell her about the graffiti saying “Kill Jews.”
Tell her that we’ll be assaulted in the streets, in our shops.
Tell her that they’ll set fire to our synagogues.
Tell her it will happen right here in London.
Tell her it’s already happening.
Tell her to look around, to read the news.
Don’t tell her to read the news. She only sees what she wants to see.
Tell her we’ll read the news together.
Tell her this: 250 assaults on Jewish targets in the UK in the past 6 weeks.
Tell her she’s encouraging them.
Don’t tell her that.
Tell her it’s not her fault.
Tell her she’s a special girl.
Tell her she’s famous.
Tell her everyone loves her.
Tell her people hate hearing the truth.
Don’t tell her to think truth, not truth.
Don’t frighten her.
Tell her we don’t want to talk about it.
Tell her we want to talk about it, as long as we talk honestly.
Tell her she has to be honest too.
Tell her she’s not outside history.
Tell her nobody is outside history.
Tell her she has to be honest.
Tell her that words have power.
Tell her that power is not truth.
Tell her that fear is not truth.
Don’t tell her anything.
Tell her anything to make her stop lying.
Tell her that her tongue will fall out.
Tell her that her pants will catch fire.
Tell her that words like hers set fires.
Tell her about the synagogue door.
Tell her we don’t want our synagogues to burn any more.
Tell her we don’t want anything to burn any more.
Tell her we want peace.
Tell her we offered land for peace.
Tell her we offered blood for peace.
Tell her we bleed, we’ve always bled.
Tell her to stop pricking us.
Don’t tell her that.
Don’t tell her about blood.
Tell her. Tell her about the blood that will be on her hands.
Tell her about Jerusalem.
Don’t tell her about Jerusalem. Tell her about London.
Tell her what she’s encouraging in London.
Tell her this is the worst it’s been in London in over 25 years.
Tell her about London. Tell her we’re being attacked in the streets.
Tell her we don’t want to be attacked in the theater too.
Tell her that’s not the way to find peace.
Don’t tell her about peace. She doesn’t want peace.
Don’t tell her anything from us. She doesn’t want to hear anything from us.
Tell her something.
Tell her silence equals death.
Tell her that doesn’t mean that all words are life.
Don’t tell her that.
Don’t frighten her.