Theatre and War 2: It’s not funny!

Manegalian Passport | Bomb Shelter Stories | Man Up


Theatre and War 2 It’s not funny! 

Guest host: Lee Kern – Academy nominated writer. 

A panel exploring the complex role of humor in times of conflict. Through theatre, creators find ways to use comedy to process the unthinkable, survive emotionally, and connect with audiences in turbulent times. With creators who know how to walk the fine line between laughter and pain, this discussion dives into the importance of humor to endure and make sense of challenging realities.

Manegalian Passport

A pathetic satire about the Promised Land

Written by Ala Dakka | Directed by Lior Zakai

Jaffa Theatre

Prize for Best Play awarded to Ala Dakka, Prize for Best Actress to Hanna Azoulay Hasfari, and Prize for Most Promising Actress awarded to Roni Shteckler at Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre, 2023

Watan (nationality in Arabic) doesn’t have much luck, but one day he discovers that he has been chosen to be a citizen of a new developing small Island nation called Manegal. Watan, who feels that his future as an Arab in Israel is not going to improve anytime soon, decides to embark on a journey to obtain a passport so he can start over somewhere else. But the bizarre condition set by the passport office leads him to a head-on confrontation with everything he knows. Will Watan agree to give up everything for the Promised Land?

Ala Dakka is a playwright, screenwriter, and actor in film, television, and theatre.

Writing: Red Skies (Television Channel 13, co-writer), All the Way Home, children’s play, and Me and My Brother Salach (short film), which received a production grant from the New Fund for Cinema and Television in 2023.

Selected acting roles in theatre: Winter Funeral by Hanoch Levin, directed by Yair Sherman, You Don’t Fight Duels Nowadays (Beer Sheva Municipal Theater), Yerma, Death of a Salesman (The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv), The Maids (Elad Theatre), and The Thin Soldier by Hanoch Levin.

Cinema: Beyond the Mountains and Hills, directed by Eran Kolirin, Victory Picture, directed by Avi Nesher, The Cousin, directed by Tzahi Grad, Monkey House, directed by Avi Nesher, and To Burn the Sky, directed by Imri Matalon. 

Television: Midrasha Season 2, Fauda Seasons, East Side Season 1, and Aviram Katz. 

Ala Dakka was nominated for an Ofir Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Lior Zakai is a director, creator, and theatre teacher. She graduated with honors from the Theater Directing and Teaching Program at Kibbutzim College of Education, Technology and the Arts (BA), and is an MA student in the Interdisciplinary Arts Program at Tel Aviv University. 

Her directing works include Manegalian Passport, which won the Awards for Best Play, Best Actress, and Best Promising Actress (Acco Festival of Alternative Israeli Theatre, 2023), It’s Just a Play (Soliko Festival, Hashaa Theatre for Children and Youth), Elinor (Short Theater Festival, Tzavta Theatre), Boobs, which won the Awards for Best Play and Audience Choice (Theatronetto, 2023), Yarmolsh and Norsh (Playwrights Project, Tzavta Theatre), Tell Me What I Want (Hameshulash Theater, Habima National Theatre), and Scream ( 24K Project, Hameretz 2). 

During her studies, she won the Kikoine scholarships for 2017 and 2018, and the Ahla Halevi scholarship for 2019. 

Productions she participated in include The Dybbuk – Director’s Version (Habait Theatre), Girlfriends Club (Givatayim Theatre), The End (Tzavta Theatre), and New Instructions (Tel Aviv Municipality).

Running Time: 75 minutes

Bomb Shelter Stories

Written by Itay Segal, Shahar Pinkas, Ori Urian, Erez Drigues, Noa Shechter, Noam Gil, Shlomit Arnon, Yoav Bar-Lev, Tom and Jonathan Schwarzberg, and actress Maya Maoz

Directed by Matan Dari Badash, Yael Goldberg, and Maya Buenos

Habima National Theatre

Nine short stories by nine playwrights form a unique play.

Each of the nine stories takes place in a different bomb shelter in Israel, moments after the siren is heard. The scenes are about ten minutes long, featuring diverse characters illustrating the multiculturalism in Israeli society.

Running Time: 110 minutes

Man Up

Written by Lee Mesika Ohana and Ofer Greenberg

Directed by Oran Halfon

In 2012, when I enlisted to the IDF Armored Corp, my friends gave me two weeks before I called them, broke down in tears, and told them I quit. Within a year, I became a qualified tank commander, and in 2014, it was my turn to defend my country. 

The call for Operation Protective Edge in Gaza caught me in the middle of a shower. I said to myself, “Ofer, take a couple of minutes here, you’re going to fight.” It was only in the middle of the Gaza War that I discovered that I’m no “Rambo.”

As a result, I wrote this tragic comedy based on my true story, which gives the audience an opportunity to look into the mind of a combat soldier. More than ten years since I was discharged, I discovered that my story about trauma is still being written now.

The show received the Theatronetto Theatre Festival’s Tarin Shalfi Audience Choice Award in 2024.

Ofer Greenberg is an actor and playwright. He is a graduate of Nissan Nativ Acting Studio (2018), and holds a BA in Directing and Teaching.

He took part in the following productions at The Jerusalem Khan Theatre: Antigone, Teibele and Her Demon, and A Wedding in Time of Plague. On screen he played in the film The Stronghold (2023), and in a leading role in the film Kissufim (Netflix).

Lee Mesika Ohana is an actress and creator, and a graduate of the Goodman School of Drama. Since 2015, she has performed in various theatre productions (Beer Sheva Municipal Theater, Orna Porat Theater for Children and Youth). She is the director and founder of Generation Y Group, whose satirical show has been running all over the country since 2019.

On screen: Just One More Story, Getting Married, and Sublet.

Oran Halfon is a creator, writer, and theatre director. She holds a BA in Education, specializing in Theater Directing and Teaching.

Her debut play, Children of Divorce, which she wrote, produced, and directed, premiered in 2019. She wrote and directed two adaptations of children’s plays for the Tmu-na Ensemble: Bilby, which won an Honorable Mention Award, and was accepted into the National Culture Catalog, and The Garden of Lost Dreams by Yonatan Geffen, which premiered in December 2023.

Running Time: 50 minutes