In Khawla Ibraheem’s ‘A Knock on the Roof,’ Humor Is a Constant Salve Amid the Horrors of War

The Syrian-Palestinian theater artist based in the Golan Heights reminds us how everyday life, with its little pleasures and petty irritations, continues even in times of catastrophe.

Joan Marcus
Khawla Ibraheem in 'A Knock on the Roof.' Joan Marcus

Sometimes a tragedy involving a large number of victims can be made to seem more accessible by scaling it down to a single person — or a single actor, in the case of “A Knock on the Roof,” a blistering, roughly 80-minute play written and performed by a Syrian-Palestinian theater artist based in the Golan Heights, Khawla Ibraheem.

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