A doorman delves into fractured psyches and evolving brain lineages as he confronts his brother’s martyrdom.

By François Abou Salem and Paula Fünfeck.

In his final major creative work, the late artist and founder of Palestinian theater, François Abu Salem, tackled in the play "In the Shadow of the Martyr" the deep chasm between two generations and two distinct eras.

"In the Shadow of the Martyr" is the culmination of an extensive exploration into the minds of those who carry out martyrdom operations and the evolution of human brain lineages. On stage, Waseem Khair conducts a dialogue with himself and imaginary characters during a night shift as a doorman at a psychiatric hospital. That hospital, in fact, was meant to be where the doorman would work as a specialist in the evolution of brain lineages—had it not been for the martyrdom of his brother, who blew himself up on a bus in the city of Netanya inside the 1948-occupied territories.