Hanoch Levin Reimagined: From War to Swiss Peace

Posted by: Vg Admin Posted on: December 17, 2024 Panel Discussions

An exploration of current productions of Levin’s timeless works (including an Opera!). With his signature dark wit and sharp-eyed cynicism, Levin’s plays feel more prophetic than ever (and not in the good way). This panel dives into how the legacy of Israel’s most influential playwright continues to inspire, provoke, and hold up an uncomfortable mirror to both today’s theatrical world and the messy political realities we live in.

Moderated by Prof. Roy Horovitz
Chair of Drama and Theatre Program, Bar-Ilan University.
An acclaimed Israeli actor, director, translator, dramaturge and scholar.
An expert on Hanoch Levin, performs and teaches Levins’ works both in Israel and abroad.

The Circus of Nothingness

“Mary and Charlie are lovers, the circus is their home, She rides the trapeze up in the air, he stands in the ring below, One night, she decides to just let go…”

How do you deal with loss?
The circus of nothingness is a meta-world where the acrobat is a floating memory, the elephants are tremors of anger, the clowns are longing, and the horses are the neigh of madness. Mary’s spirit leads Charlie through memories, emotions, and fantasy, on his way to find redemption.
More than 80 puppets, an empty circus tent and two performers seeking solace.

Shahar Marom is the artistic director of Hanut Theater Company – an interdisciplinary theatre located in south Tel Aviv. He has directed a number of productions, and is also a performer himself. His show Machine Man Spectacle performed at the Edinburgh International Festival, 2023.

Shahar is also the artistic director of Train Theater and the Jerusalem International Puppet Festival.

Naomi and Norma

Posted by: Vg Admin Posted on: December 1, 2024 comedy , Israeli Classic , Political/Social Issues , Woman's Power

Naomi Dekel, a recent divorcee from Eilat, a city in the south of Israel, has to move to Metula, a town near Israel’s northern border, a six-hour drive, for her new job, caring for Norma: a lonely and bitter old lady, a former lawyer who has recently fired one caregiver after another. When Ethan, Naomi’s ex-husband, discovers that Naomi has left their daughters with a friend, he calls social services and threatens to take full custody. Naomi, fearing she could lose custody of her daughters, has no choice but to hurry back to Eilat, dragging a reluctant Norma along. Their journey, which starts out as a power struggle between the two protagonists, develops into a surprising, funny, and powerful relationship that will completely change the lives of both women.

Irit Kaplan is a leading stage and screen actress, as well as an award-winning playwright. For the past twenty-five years, she has been a member of the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv, and has appeared in a wide variety of roles, ranging from world classics to contemporary Israeli plays, films, and TV series and films. Presently, she can be seen worldwide on the Netflix series The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem. Kaplan co-wrote with Yoav Bar-Lev the plays Genius Bound and Naomi and Norma, for which they won the Cameri Theatre Award for Playwrights of the Year in 2021 and 2024. Kaplan’s prestigious awards include Best Leading Actress at the Israeli Academy Awards for the film A Matter of Size (2009), and Best Supporting Actress at the Israeli Television Academy Awards for The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem.

Yoav Bar-Lev graduated from Nissan Nativ Acting Studio, and is a playwright, director, and actor (theatre, film, television). Writing for the stage: Genius Bound, The Witch Next Door (with Irit Kaplan), The Farewell Party, Take the Dog Out (with Shlomit Arnon), Ach Ach Boom Trach (with Norman Issa), A Trip to the Cheese Star, Bialik 22, and The Brothers (with Hanoch Reim).

Directing: The Three Musketeers and The Witch Next Door (Mediatheque Theater), Romeo and Juliet in the Square (The Jerusalem Khan Theatre), On Stage (an independent production), A Trip to the Cheese Star (Orna Porat Theater for Children and Youth), and Improv 2021 (Haifa Municipal Theatre). Alongside his writing and directing, Yoav has been a leading actor for the past thirty years at Haifa Municipal Theatre, The Cameri Theatre, The Jerusalem Khan Theatre, and Habima National Theatre, among others.

Tamar Keenan is a theatre director, playwright, translator, dramatist, and winner of the Yosef Milo Award for Best Director in 2022 and 2023. Fresh out of Nissan Nativ Acting Studio, Tamar joined the world-famous Gesher Theatre. She was a prominent member of the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv for eighteen years before embarking on her directing career. Since 2016, she has directed over a dozen plays in Israel’s leading theatres. Tamar also serves as artistic director at Tzavta Theatre in Tel Aviv, and as co-artistic director of the theatre’s celebrated One Act Play Festival.

The First Lady

Posted by: Vg Admin Posted on: December 1, 2024 Based On True Story , Israeli Classic , Political/Social Issues , Theatre at War

In the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War, fierce public criticism is leveled against Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan, blaming them for the government’s failures that led to the war, and the military failures that caused such extensive loss of life.

A desperate Golda tries to fight these accusations, while Dayan, wants to resign.

Golda’s daughter Chana tries to support her mother, who is ill and exhausted after the war, and uncovers her doubts and guilty feelings.

Despite being absolved by the Agranat Commission, Golda ultimately decides to step down.

Creators note:

Rehearsals for The First Lady began in August 2023. In them, we tried to better understand the days leading up to the Yom Kippur War. We researched the public mood and political atmosphere, and the prevailing national mood during the war and the Agranat Commission. We felt a great sense of responsibility as we prepared to stage the play.

On October 7, a week before the play was scheduled to premiere, we woke up along with everyone else to a Saturday that would change our lives. In a single instant, the play had become reality – the shock, the fallen and the hostages, the terrible rift, and our leaders’ responsibility. Israel, for the second time, was caught unprepared. The surprise, which brought with it immense pain, shocked us all. Bertolt Brecht wrote: “In the dark times, will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times”.

Motti Lerner is a playwright and screenwriter whose plays and films mostly deal with political themes. They include Kastner, Pangs of the Messiah, Paula, and Pollard at the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv, Exile in Jerusalem, Passing The Love of Women, Doing His Will, and The Abandoned Melody at Habima National Theatre, Autumn at Beit Lessin Theatre, Hard Love at Haifa Municipal Theatre, The Hastening of The End at The Jerusalem Khan Theatre, and The Admission and On the Edge at Jaffa Theater. His productions abroad include Kastner, Autumn, and The Murder of Isaac at Heilbronn Theater, Germany, Exile in Jerusalem in Stuttgart, Berlin and Vienna, Hard Love in New York, Rome, and Berlin, The Murder of Isaac at Centerstage, Baltimore, Passing the Love of Women and The Admission at Theater J, DC, Pangs of the Messiah at Theater J, Silk Road, Chicago, Theater of Ideas, NY, Benedictus at Golden Thread Theatre, San Francisco, and in Theater J, Paulus at Silk Road, After The War at Mosaic Theater, DC, and Eichmann’s Trial at The National Theatre in Bucharest. He is a recipient of the Award for Best Play (1985), the Israeli Motion Picture Academy Award for Best TV Drama (1995 and 2004), the Prime Minister of Israel Award (1994), and the Landau Prize for The Performing Arts (2014).

Moshe Kepten is one of the most renowned directors in Israel, and currently the artistic director of Habima National Theatre. For three consecutive years, he was the artistic director of the Israel Festival in Jerusalem, an interdisciplinary celebration of art from around the world. Kepten has directed numerous plays and musicals for all Israeli theatre companies, including Spring Awakening, Bent, Behind the Fence, Shakespeare in Love, Les Misérables, Love Love Love, Evita, Taken at Midnight, My Fair Lady, Fatal Attraction, Birthmark, Beaufort, The Dinner Game, Labor of Life, The One My Soul Loves, and most recently The Father I Could Have Been.

A rebel and a teacher

Posted by: Vg Admin Posted on: December 1, 2024 Autobiographical , Based On True Story , Devised Theatre , Physical Theatre , Political/Social Issues , Puppets and Objects Theatre , Solo Performance , The Jewish Syndrom

A bible lesson turns into a puppet show, an ars poetic confession, and a series of thoughts about Jewish-Israeli reality. A fringe-theatre creator finds himself in a midlife crisis, teaching bible in high school. The two worlds, the subversive and the pedagogic, create friction and collision, and the biblical scenes mix with the daily life of an Israeli classroom, intertwined with the students’ stories and the teacher’s personal life.

The show deals with a range of personal and collective conflicts: religion vs. secularity, the significance of acquiring knowledge in the digital age, sexuality and violence in the lives of teenagers (and in general), intimacy in an alienated reality overloaded with virtual experiences, disintegrating family ties and relations between various sectors of Israeli society, and more.

Moti Brecher is an artist, actor-creator, and teacher. In his works, Brecher designs puppets, and uses them to dramatize performances that combine autobiographical details with political and historical events, in a visual language that draws inspiration from various artistic genres and media.

Brecher has written and produced numerous shows and performances for adults and children. He has participated in several museum exhibitions, presented a solo exhibition, and initiated and directed community projects. He has written satirical television sketches, and performed in the television series Srugim and Shtisel. Brecher is a graduate of the Excellence Program in Teaching and Art Studies, with emphasis on digital media, at Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts, and graduated with honors from the Department of Visual Literacy (MEd). His MA thesis Puppets, Monsters and Education focuses on the subversive use of puppets on the television series Sesame Street.

Light

Posted by: Vg Admin Posted on: December 1, 2024 Circus of Life , comedy , Devised Theatre , Performance , Physical Theatre , Theatre at War

“I created this show when the Russian army began bombing the Ukrainian power plants. Ukraine plunged into cold darkness, and the world started donating blankets and generators. This gave the show its name – Light. I wondered, like everyone else, what I could do to stop the war. It’s quite simple: in order to overcome darkness, you need to turn on the light. Some do so with a match, a flashlight, a candle, a piece of charcoal; others think good thoughts or just smile. Laughter is my weapon. Laughter kills fear; laughter brings forth goodness and light. These are my good thoughts about a bad war”.

Alexey (Losha) Gavrielov was born in Yakutsk (USSR), and studied Theatre at the Sophie Moskowitz School of the Arts. He directed numerous clown shows and received international awards for his work, including First Prize at the Toronto Fringe Festival for The Hag with a Bag. He tours internationally with his solo clown show for children Apchee, performed over a thousand times and nominated for the Award for Best Children’s Theatre Show in Israel, and with the two-man show for children, That Round Thing, performed over three hundred times in Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, and elsewhere.

On The Way Home / Return Sign

Posted by: Vg Admin Posted on: December 1, 2024 Audience Involvement , Autobiographical , Based on Literature , Based On True Story , Devised Theatre , october 7 , Performance , Theatre at War

An intimate event around a shared table revisits and reconstructs stories from the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, and that of October 7, 2023. Those present and absent in the room shape the memories of past, ongoing, and future wars.

In October 2023, Yoram’s story resonated deeply, reflecting the new reality that has transformed us: a severe injury from a missile strike in 1973 divided Yoram’s life into two. His long journey of healing, driven by willpower and his love for life, led him to write a book asking: Can one truly return home?

The performance unfolds as a series of actions that change with each presentation, allowing the narrative to transform each evening. It invites both performers and the audience to gather, build a table, sit around it, and engage in a collaborative exploration of our new reality through a variety of actions, rituals, objects, and stories.

Danielle Cohen Levy is an independent director, writer, performer, and lecturer. She is a co-founder of the WCS group, and her work with Namer Golan, Worst Case Scenario (2015), won multiple awards at the Acco Festival for Alternative Theatre, and the Golden Hedgehog Award for Group Work. The production was presented at the Brighton Fringe Festival and various international festivals in England, France, Germany, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Estonia. Cohen Levy has received several grants for original playwriting, and her play The Advocate premiered in 2018 at The Jerusalem Khan Theatre under her direction. She founded the homemade publishing house PostcardPlay, distributing over six hundred copies worldwide. Danielle is the Artistic Director of Teatronetto Festival for Solo Performances, and a member of the artistic committee at Tmu-na Theater. She is the director of the Acting Preparatory Program at Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts, where she also teaches in the Directing and Acting Departments. She earned an MFA with distinction from Tel Aviv University, and a BEd with distinction from the School of Performing Arts at Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts.

Family on a Train

Posted by: Vg Admin Posted on: December 1, 2024 Circus of Life , The Jewish Syndrom , Theatre at War

Winner of the Award for Best Play at the Kishon Israeli Comedy Festival 2023.

A poetic comedy about a family, with quite a few communication problems, on a train fleeing their homeland. The parents unsuccessfully try to break some bad news to their daughter. The train travels – no one knows where it’s going, and why it isn’t stopping. At one point, a man enters the carriage, and further destabilizes the relationship between the girl and her parents. How long has he been on the train? Two years? Fifty? He was forgotten there, and his entire family was destroyed. At one point, the girl jumps off the train. This jump, possibly to her death, allows all the characters a kind of “rebirth”. The play shifts from the realm of the personal and psychological to the fixations of the “nation” – Nazis. Holocaust. Refugees by train, etc. This creates a movement between the real and concrete towards the abstract and symbolic. (From the article by Udi Ben Saadia)

Eldad Cohen was born and raised in Jerusalem.

Books: Look At Me (1998), At Least You Would Have Died in An Orderly Manner (2003), and Wake Up Mum (2019), all published by Yedioth Books. His children’s book Blue Melody with Curls (2012) was published by Am Oved. Many of his short stories and monologues have been adapted for the stage and won awards. Plays: Look At Me (an adaptation of his book), Balloon, Areas and Farewells, and Repertory Theatre. Awards for this play include Playwright of the Year, Golden Hedgehog Awards 2013; First Prize, Stockholm Fringe Festival 2013; and First Prize, International Comedy Festival, Romania 2017. It was one of the finalists for a prize at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2012, and has been translated into English, Romanian, French, and Swedish, among others. His plays for children were performed at Haifa International Children’s Theater Festival: My Summer Holiday (First Prize), and End, Beginning and Cat in collaboration with Jordan Bar-Kochva, and Maybe an Elephant (Directing Prize), which became a successful television series.

Sharon Stark is a playwright and director, after being a dancer and an actor for many years. At thirteen, she left home to study at the School of American Ballet in New York. After graduating, she joined Scapino Ballet Rotterdam. Following an injury, she returned to Israel and studied acting at Nissan Nativ Acting Studio. Her credits include dozens of critically acclaimed roles at Haifa Municipal Theatre and The Jerusalem Khan Theatre. This led to her becoming an independent creator, exploring the paradoxes of modern life, self-definition, and contradictions that are part of our identity, often involving a slightly surreal parallel reality, and focusing on love, parenting, and education. Her work has been presented in theatre festivals and at prominent independent theatre venues, including Tmu-na Theater and Tzavta Theatre in Tel Aviv, as well as Haifa Municipal Theatre. Her plays have been translated into English and Georgian (Trulove Ltd.)

Hamburgirls

Posted by: Vg Admin Posted on: December 1, 2024 Devised Theatre , Performance , Woman's Power

A musical theatre show that delves into the story of two women who find solace, comfort, and adventure in their burger-shaped beds. Within this setting, they embark on a journey through their implosive fears, visions, and fantasies. Mirroring each other’s experiences, they navigate the complexities of their close friendship. As they confront the full spectrum of themselves, they also compose the narrative of their future together through a rehearsal that is trying to be the medicine for the violent triggering chaos of their experience. The show becomes a poignant love letter to the essence of true friendship. Hamburgirls celebrates the myth of “being together”, and seeks to romanticize a renewed appreciation for the beauty and resilience of connections.

Maya Landsmann is a theatre and television actress, creator and performance artist, poet, and musician. Her latest roles in theatre since graduating from Nissan Nativ Acting Studio (2016): Peter Pan and Angels in America directed by Gilad Kimchi, The Constant Mourner directed by Ari Fullman, and God of Vengeance directed by Itay Tiran.

On television, she appeared in Dismissed, Sad City Girls, The Lesson, and Bear, among many others. Maya collaborated as a creator and actress with Ariel Brown in the show Zola 2000 and in The Water Boy and the Water (Hazira Performance Art Arena).

In her works, Landsmann explores the medium of live performance and the human encounter that theatre enables in a post-internet world, and is interested in topics such as fringe culture and rave culture, poetry, technology, and politics. She is a drummer for the band Power Strangers, whose album Apes Together was released in 2023. Awards include the Directors’ Award for Zola 2000 (Acco Festival for Alternative Israeli Theatre, 2018); and two Academy Awards for a leading role in The Lesson, (Best Actress at the Canneseries International Series Festival, and at the German International Series Festival).

Hila Gluskinos is a multidisciplinary performing artist, theatre maker, musician, and poetic psychonaut. With a background in acting and movement, she graduated from the Sadna Professional Dance Program in Kibbutz Ga’aton (2009), and from Nissan Nativ Acting Studio (2016). Since then, Hila has engaged in a range of experimental collaborations, including choreographing, performing, and composing for hakahaLahakah – Mythos of Company under the direction of Ido Feder, alongside collaborators Dudi Maayan, Michal Helfman, and Jonathan Omer Mizrahi (2020). She also contributed to Sacred Servixx, a project with vocalist and healer Faye Shapiro (2022), exploring the intersections of sound expression and healing. Her theatre work includes performances in Birthday by Danny Neymen at Hazira Theatre (2024), Name Drop by Jason Danino Holt at the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv (2023), and A-hole Fucking Loser by Ariel Sereni Brown at Habait Theatre (2017). Hila’s artistic practice emphasizes the exploration of her experience and the deepening of personal connections through performance. Additionally, she has collaborated with musicians such as Daniel Neshama Itach, Avshalom Ariel, Gilbert Broid, and Haim Vitali Cohen. Her solo musical piece Troubadour premiered at the Diver Festival in 2021, reflecting her commitment to merging mystery with meaningful expression.

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