By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

About 430 people, includingteachers, principals, leaders in Cincinnati's Jewish and Muslim communities, Playhouse subscribers and a few students heard a public reading of Glyn O'Malley's controversial play Paradise Tuesday night at Playhouse in the Park.

Listeners differed whether schoolchildren should see the play, which had been intended for school tours until objections from some over how it portrayed Muslims.

Dr. Sardar Tanveer, emeritus professor at the University of Cincinnati and principal at the International Academy of Cincinnati, an Islamic school, said he was "very much disappointed" by the play.

"It does not give any positive message," he said. "To me it looks like they are glorifying suicide, and teenagers will get a bad message. This is a critical conflict, and it's not that simple to understand by this kind of play."

But Trudy Weiss Craig, a parent and co-chair of cultural arts at Beechwood Elementary in Fort Mitchell, said she thought the play was important.

"We are grateful for the relevant, quality theater (the Playhouse) brings to our school," she said, citing recent school tours of Fires in the Mirror and Wrestling Season. "It is a balanced, compelling presentation of an age-old conflict, inviting thought and discussion of very important issues."

The play culminates in a suicide bombing by a Palestinian teenager, inspired by Ayat al-Akhras, 18, a Palestinian high school senior who killed herself and Israeli high school senior Rachel Levy in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem last March.

The central figures of Paradise, which has 11 scenes and an epilogue, are Sara (Leanne Robinson), an American-born teen who lives with her mother in Israel, and Palestinian teenager Fatima (Sunshine Cappelletti). They were often shown side-by-side, in vignettes that told of their passions, their talents and their commonality.

Danielle Heiman, 15, a student at Walnut Hills High School, said he thought the play dealt with both Palestinians and Israelis evenly, on a personal level.

"You could see the radical point of view, and the hopefulness in the younger generation that this could be resolved," she said.

"I think it's something a lot of people our age should see. I'm Jewish, but I learned a lot about the Palestinian point of view."

After the reading, the audience submitted questions on cards to be answered by panel members Ed Stern, Playhouse producing artistic director; Bert Goldstein, director of education; and Dr. Linda Lushbaugh, assistant principal of Winton Woods High School.

The Playhouse commissioned the 70-minute work, which, Stern said, is still a work in progress, for school programs that annually reach up to 80,000 young people.

If the teacher response is positive, he said, the play could tour schools next year.

Playwright O'Malley, speaking earlier by phone from New York where he was snowed in, said he had made changes to the play to make it "more accessible and understandable" since a Dec. 16 reading that had triggered objections.

With the public reading, he said, "I really am hopeful that dialogue can be begun in Cincinnati."

Stern echoed the sentiment.

"Cincinnati has gotten some bad press due to this. I'm hoping that people can look to Cincinnati and say, `They air differences with respect and civility and grace,' and start looking at us in a different way."

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com