A stage adaptation of Joseph Cedar’s award-winning film, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. A longstanding rivalry between father and son, both Talmud scholars at The Hebrew University, reaches a devastating climax when one of them is awarded the prestigious Israel Prize, threatening to tear their entire family apart. The father, a veteran researcher who has dedicated his life to the precise labor of philological study, waits in vain for institutional recognition that never comes. The son, by contrast, is a renowned scholar, and the recipient of wide acclaim, prizes, and popularity. The play deals with personal and professional identity, charged intergenerational relationships, the longing for academic justice, and the question of how far a person is willing to go in pursuit of recognition. It is a bittersweet story of family, ambition, and the importance of a single footnote in one man’s life.
Noga Ashkenazi is a dramaturg, playwright, and filmmaker whose works span both theatre and film. In 2024-2025, she served as the in-house dramaturg of Habima National Theatre. Her stage adaptations include Double Act, based on Jacqueline Wilson’s novel, at Mediatheque Theatre; Summer in Marienbad, adapted from a story by Shalom Aleichem, and Gulliver, inspired by Jonathan Swift’s classic, both at Gesher Theatre; All the Rivers, adapted from Dorit Rabinyan’s novel, at The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv; and Footnote, based on Joseph Cedar’s prize-winning film, at Habima National Theatre.
Moshe Kepten is one of the most renowned directors in Israel, and was the artistic director of Habima National Theatre from 2016 to 2025. 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 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, The Father I Could Have Been, The First Lady and Priscilla Queen of the Desert. He is the CEO and artistic director of Haifa Theatre.