Night falls, and the former leper asylum comes to life. The nurses, the director-general, and the patients invite the public to a mysterious journey around the premises, the disinfection rooms, the attic, and the darkened garden. To overcome their loneliness and fear, the lepers perform a play for their guests, based on a short story by I. L. Peretz, In Times of Plague.

This is a nighttime event produced in the spirit of the successful New York City play Sleep No More. The audience splits into four groups, crosses the wall surrounding the isolated building, and enters a strange, eerie world, following the lepers into scenes playing out in different spaces around the building. All the while, social distancing and hygiene rules are enforced – in keeping with strict leprosy protocols.

Live music played by four musicians will accompany the event.

This is a unique and novel coproduction between two Jerusalemite institutions: The Hansen House Center for Design, Media and Technology, and The Jerusalem Khan Theatre. It is supported by the Jerusalem Development Authority and the Jerusalem Foundation.

Excerpts from the play will be screened during the panel discussion on November 18th 2021

Aya Kaplan is a stage director, playwright, and senior acting and writing teacher at the Performing Arts Studio Founded by Yoram Lowenstein. Her works are regularly performed in theatres in Israel, including The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv, Habima National Theatre, The Jerusalem Khan Theatre, and Beer Sheva Theatre, where she served as a member of the artistic committee from 2011 to 2016. She has served on numerous committees for Israeli theatre festivals. She teaches acting, writing, and text analysis seminars for actors, directors, and designers in Israel and abroad. In recent years, she has been focusing on directing her own plays, as well as creating a new artistic language for original Israeli playwrighting, and bringing feminine narratives to center stage.

Her latest works include writing and directing the stage version of Lost Relatives by Nava Semel, Habima National Theatre (2020); co-writing (with Shahar Pinkas) and directing Rosa’s Apartment, Beer Sheva Theatre (2020); writing and directing The Return, Cameri Theatre (2019); directing The Nether by Jennifer Haley, Jerusalem Khan Theatre (2018); director and dramaturge of Doing His Will by Motti Lerner, Habima National Theatre (2017); co-writing (with Joshua Sobol) and directing Wandering Stars, based on the novel by Shalom Aleichem, Yiddishpiel Theatre (2016); and director and dramaturge of Between Friends by Hagit Rehavi-Nikolayevsky, based on the novel by Amos Oz, Beer Sheva Theatre (2015).