Peacock cuts through the lie of a consistent, unified identity, to exude intense characters, both archetypal and half-baked, then sticks these amorphic lumps of mud and clay back together to form a single being, an unstable man who is absorbed into far-fetched situations, observes them, and is transformed with them.
Binyamin Yom-Tov was born and raised in Netanya to parents who immigrated from Iran. The youngest of four, he always preferred a world of fantasy rather than reality.
He served in the army as an infantry soldier, all the while dreaming of creating musicals with his Arab “cousins”.
He prayed in the synagogue, but always daydreamed of coming out of the Holy Ark, radiating bright colors, sparkles, and flickering lights.
Peacock is a fusion between a theatre play, a live standup comedy show, and a party in a nightclub. The journey between ups and downs, masculinity and femininity, infancy and old age, Iran and Israel, Netanya and Tel Aviv – is only one shared-taxi ride away.
Benjamin Yom Tov won the Golden Hedgehog Fringe Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance in Peacock, and the play won the Award for Best Lighting Design.
An excellent performance, outstanding in its remarkable originality… With its sensitive text and meticulous execution, it achieves a kind of distillation of human essence… Poignant… A funny, sad, wise, original work. (Nano Shabtai, Haaretz)
* The show includes live electronic music and full-frontal nudity
Benjamin Yom Tov was born in 1985. He studied physical theatre based on the teachings of Jacques Lecoq in 2008.
He studied at the Kibbutzim College School of Performing Arts (2011-2013), and has since performed in a number of productions.
In 2015, he created Good Night Talpiot – Slumber Party together with five other performers. The performance traced the Israeli ritual of “slumber parties” taken from collective memories and group nostalgia. The show was promoted by Hazira Performance Art Arena in Jerusalem.
He initiated and participated in informal “living-room” performances that combine physical work with movement and live electronic music.
In 2018, he was accepted to Habait Theatre’s Debut Incubator, and won first place. This budget and workshop led to the development of his first full-length work, which premiered in January 2019 – Tavas (Peacock).
