Yasser's messages to Crystal Zevon always seemed subdued given his circumstances. Amid all the bloodshed, misery and devastation that surrounds him in war-torn Gaza, the 33-year-old civil engineer, husband and father of three young children rarely complained to his American friend in Vermont about his plight. Certainly, other Gazans had it worse.
But then winter came, and Yasser's 4-month-old daughter, Maria, got very sick. The family, whose home had been destroyed in an Israeli air strike, was now living in a tent, its third of 14 displacements to date. In January, Zevon received a message from Yasser that broke her heart: "I'm afraid for her." Translation: The girl appeared near death.
Zevon, an author, playwright and screenwriter who lives in West Barnet, has been messaging her Palestinian friend almost daily since fall 2023. That's when Israeli forces invaded the Gaza Strip in response to the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas. Since then, the ex-wife of late singer-songwriter Warren Zevon has been raising money and awareness to help support the family.
Zevon, 75, has now composed an original play, titled One Family in Gaza, based on her actual Facebook messages with Yasser. She doesn't reveal his full name in order to protect him and his relatives. The goal, Zevon said, is to tell the story of the wider war in Gaza through the experiences of one Palestinian family. On Sunday, October 6, the Vermont Peace/Antiwar Coalition will sponsor a dramatic reading of the play at the Burlington Friends Meeting House.
Zevon first got to know Yasser online during the 2014 Israeli invasion of Gaza known as Operation Protective Edge. A longtime peace activist, Zevon periodically communicated with him over the years and began exchanging daily messages after October 7.
"Yasser, my friend. I have a question," Zevon wrote in one such text from earlier this year. "Did you write that your village was bombed and that members of the Abu Rida family were martyred? I can't find the text so I'm wondering if I dreamed that?"
"It is true," Yasser answered. "The number of victims was 11, seven of them from my Abu Rida family."
"This makes me cry from the bottom of my heart," she replied.
In another message chain, Yasser described the psychological trauma that the ceaseless bombardment inflicts on his wife.
"Mental illness has struck Nada again," he wrote. "Obsessive-compulsive disorder. She imagines that she misses us when she hears every sound of a missile."
"Oh no, Yasser," Zevon replied. "I haven't been able to imagine how you stay psychologically well with the unimaginable horrors and suffering."
Zevon is perhaps best known for penning the 2007 bestseller I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon. The funny, quirky and brutally honest biography features a veritable who's who of celebrities, including Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Stephen King.
In contrast, One Family in Gaza is a spartan tale with just three characters: Yasser, an unnamed friend from afar (i.e., Zevon, although not played by her) and a newscaster whose emotionless accounts of the military operation provide the story's broader context. The production features projections of actual photos and videos from Gaza of Yasser and his family, but there's little else in terms of props or scenery.
"I wanted to write something that could be replicated anywhere by anyone, something that people can do in their church basements or living rooms or whatever," Zevon said. "My idea is to get the story out."
In a sense, the story is ongoing. Zevon continues to check in with Yasser every day. Some days he's silent; on others he sends a terse three-word reply: "We are fine."
"It took me a while, but I learned that 'We are fine' means 'We are alive,'" Zevon said. "For now."