Peace on a platter

When wrestling with an international crisis, wouldn’t it be great if our leaders could toss aside their half-page analyst briefs, grab dinner at a restaurant serving the cuisine of the current hot spot and immerse themselves in the human reality of the people they’re dealing with? British playwright Robin Soans took just such a shortcut to the heart of the Middle East conflict -- through its stomach.

In “The Arab-Israeli Cookbook,” Soans dramatizes actual interviews conducted, under the pretext of gathering recipes, with residents of all faiths and cultures in that troubled region. By getting them to talk about their common passion for food, this fact-based dramatization ingeniously sidesteps political propaganda to capture moving personal histories, told in the respondents’ own words and skillfully brought to life by MET Theatre director Louis Fantasia’s versatile, perfectly cast ensemble.

In a succession of character sketches, the ostensible subject is cooking -- and many tantalizing dishes are prepared before our eyes. Inevitably, though, the turmoil creeps into the narratives, which startle with their specificity and eloquence.

An elderly European Jew (Dorothy Constantine) recalls a last-minute shopping trip before a Sabbath meal, in which a suicide bomber left supermarket survivors staggering about like ghosts doused in white from ruptured paint cans. While calmly stuffing grape leaves, an Anglican priest’s wife (Ros Gentle) explains the tragic story of the bullet holes in her front gate. An embittered Palestinian refugee camp resident (Sarah Bell) recounts the death of her son at the hands of Israeli militia, while her policeman brother (Ismail Abou-El-Kanater) dryly observes that the quantity and quality of relief shipments depends on “how fashionable we are on the international circuit.”

Other memorable characters include restaurateur (Louis R. Plante), whose boisterous clientele freeze in panic, wary of an unattended backpack.

The importance of carrying on a normal life amid terrorism is hauntingly articulated by a transplanted New Yorker (Jill Holden), a Jerusalem bus driver (Ric Borelli) and a young Arab woman (Dre Slaman) studying at Hebrew University.

The “Cookbook” is subject to the typical limitations of documentary theater but the stories connect with the visceral urgency of real life.

Perhaps the most striking thing about the stories is their refusal to view the other side in stereotypes. These Arabs, Jews and Christians are far too immersed in day-to-day contact with one another to indulge that armchair fantasy. The real enemy is the accumulation of hatred on both sides that dehumanizes everyone.

Yet piercing through that hatred is the hope that echoes at a family dinner’s pledge to peace: “We’ll keep saying l’chaim until we can’t lift our arms anymore.”

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‘The Arab-Israeli Cookbook’

Where: MET Theatre, 1089 Oxford Ave., Los Angeles

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays

Ends: June 26

Price: $12 to $20

Contact: (323) 957-1152 or www.TheArab-IsraeliCookbook-LA.com

Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes