'Gegant': Roald Dahl anti-Semitic and Josep Maria Pou gigantic

In the summer of 1983, Roald Dahl , acclaimed author of Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , is finishing editing The Witches, but he is restless. He has separated from actress Patricia Neal after thirty years, the noise of construction work at his house is tormenting him, and he is visited by an American editor who asks him to reconsider his attacks on Israel in his review of God Weeps, Tony Clifton 's illustrated book about the 1982 Lebanon War. Dahl denounces the massacre of civilians by Ariel Sharon's troops (a mournful place name for Sabra and Chatila). The writer has no intention of apologizing; he stands by the facts that made "we all begin to hate Israel."

Josep Maria Pou embodies that Dahl who vindicates his judgments—even if they may be mistaken—against the mainstream of Anglo-Saxon society. A Pou who, like in " Orson Welles (yours truly) " and " The Father ," enhances with superb metabolization the humanity of a man who feels disoriented and eccentric in old age.

In addition to Dahl's anti-Semitic views, Rosenblatt raises the age-old dilemma of separating the author's personality, which can be abject, from the genius of his work. The "gigantic" Pou has excellent counterparts from Pep Planas (Tom Maschler, Dahl's British editor); Clàudia Benito (the American editor); Victòria Pagès as Liccy, his partner; Aida Llop , the maid; and Jep Barceló , the gardener.

Mark Rosenblatt's 'Giant' is a major piece of theater that justifies the three Lawrence Olivier Awards it has won, including Best Show of 2025. Dahl's controversy with his editors—both of Jewish descent—illustrates the rhetorical mechanisms that disguise antisemitism—almost always from the left—as a critique of the (militaristic) way of life of the State of Israel. The Dahl that Rosenblatt depicts in this text, prior to the massacre by the terrorist group Hamas on October 7, 2023, dissects the aversion to Zionism until revealing the (ancestral) demonization of the Jews. Two and a half hours of gigantic theater to understand what we're talking about.