‘Salam Shalom’: A Personal Peace Process

In the many intense regional crises raging worldwide, perhaps the most disheartening tendency of the ethnically divided factions is a failure to perceive political nuances. Among ancestral rivals, black is black and white is white, with few shades of gray intervening.

The timely “Salam Shalom” at the Los Angeles Playhouse, written by native Palestinian playwright Saleem, attempts to depict the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with a wider palette--and often succeeds, despite lapses into monochromatism.

Saleem himself plays Nabeel, a disgruntled but idealistic Palestinian student attending grad school in L.A. Tensions flare when Nabeel discovers that his assigned college roommate Yaron (Mark Irvingsen) is a native-born Israeli whose air of Westernized diffidence belies his own fiercely held political views. The initially antagonistic relationship between the two progresses into considered debate, grudging respect, sexual attraction and love.

Director Rene Migliaccio and his cast imbue Saleem’s compelling yet flawed piece with heartfelt emotionalism. Unfortunately, frequent dialogue gaps, albeit filled with quivering meaningfulness, deaden the pace and attest to Migliaccio’s overly indulgent staging.

With the threat of fanatical reprisals looming large over so many artists’ heads, Saleem shows great daring in his frank treatment of his subject, especially considering that his chief exponents are homosexual. However, within the context of this somewhat radical departure, Saleem’s remains a carefully subdued dialectic, a respectful examination of both sides of the conflict that ends with a floridly pro-Palestinian brush stroke.

For all his passion and promise, Saleem is still an apprentice playwright, judging from certain cracks in his craft. For example, his drama’s vast but repetitive ideological agenda is encompassed primarily at the expense of character development. Like seasoned debaters pitted against a time clock, the characters launch into charged political exchanges upon first meeting--and most meetings thereafter.

Clayton Tripp’s set is simple yet utilitarian, as is the lighting design by Tripp and Michael L. Chisman. A hypnotic Middle Eastern potpourri, the sound design (by Migliaccio, Saleem, Tripp and Chisman) wavers between the subtle and the overdone (as heard in the soap-operatic strains of Nabeel and Yaron’s love scenes).

Saleem missteps into stereotype with the introduction of Yaron’s Israeli army officer brother David (Bryn Pryor), who later brutally interrogates the newly returned Nabeel. Despite its polemicism, however, “Salam Shalom” examines the mounting dangers of generational intractability from an audacious new perspective.

* “Salam Shalom,” Los Angeles Playhouse, 1625 N. La Brea Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends Jan. 11. $15. (213) 882-6912. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.