What Strong Fences Make is a 2009 play by Israel Horovitz. [1]
Horovitz told an interviewer that he wrote What Strong Fences Make because "another voice needed to be heard" in the wake of Caryl Churchill's play Seven Jewish Children , which he argues was "offensive, distorted and manipulative". [2]
Horovitz has offered to allow any theater that wishes to produce What Strong Fences Make free of royalties, provided that a collection is taken up following all performances for the benefit of ONE Family Fund, a charity that assists children wounded in attacks on Israel. [3] [4]
The playwright has made the entire script of the play available as a downloadable PDF [5] on the website of Theater J.
What Strong Fences Make is set at an IDF military checkpoint just outside Ramallah. Horovitz calls it "a simple and clear stage-play that attempts to make a statement about a real-life situation that is anything but simple and clear." [3]
The first reading was staged by New York's Barefoot Theater Company on April 15, 2009. [6]
The play was produced at the Boston Theater Marathon in 2009. [7]