The approaching Hannukah season seems to have an endless supply of festivals, with an abundance (or is it excess?) of fanfare that surrounds them, but don\u2019t let the noise drown out the sound of a few truly interesting voices. The Short Theatre Festival, now in its 12th year, will take place at Tzavta from December 23 \u2013 26th. The festival offers an opportunity to experience a variety of different individual voices and perspectives, within a theatrical framework that encourages experimentation and artistic risks.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s program includes two musical productions, a festival first. Shalom Shmuelov, festival founder and artistic director explained that for him the selection process is very much a process: \u201cThe reading period is very interesting. I see myself as a dramaturg. The plays as submitted are not quite fully baked, not quite ready for the stage. We begin working on more plays than what will eventually be produced onstage.\u201d Ultimately, out of 130 submissions, 7 plays will make it to the stage.<\/p>\n
Shmuelov further explained that in soliciting submissions he prefers not to designate a theme for the festival, but rather to select the most interesting, promising texts for production. Yet, in the process of reading he found that many plays related to incidents of violence, whether expressed or repressed, physical or verbal, hence the festival\u2019s theme: Let\u2019s talk about violence. The plays are up to 30 minutes in length and will be presented in alternating programs consisting of three or four plays each.<\/p>\n
The plays:<\/p>\n
Hakirat Shinayim<\/strong> (Tooth Investigation) by Ido Setter, directed by Ofer Amram Yaldut <\/strong>(Childhood) by Rachel Shalita, directed by Nelly Amar Ein Kmo Mishpacha<\/strong> (There\u2019s Nothing Like Family) Haderech Lemata<\/strong> (The Way Down) by Alma Veich Hoshen, directed by Orly Ravinian Socharim<\/strong> (Merchants) by Amit Erez, directed by Shalom Shmuelov HaJilljull<\/strong> by Yoni Lahav, directed by Tal Brenner Michal<\/strong> by Michal Hazon, directed by Moria Zarchiya
\nBased on Harold Pinter\u2019s One for the Road (1984)
\nAn absurd investigative drama. The reason for the interrogation is unknown, the interrogator\u2019s emphasis on oral hygiene bizarre and menacing.<\/p>\n
\nA dramatic photo album. A dialogue takes place between a child and an adult, as represented by two actors, a woman and man who remain onstage throughout the play, yet constantly reverse roles as the scene shifts. The audience will have to work hard to keep up, sometimes catching on to the transition in mid-scene. The small and tender aches of childhood, often passing unseen by the surrounding adults, are at the core of this drama: a new baby in the family, moving to a different apartment, a boy who wishes he were a girl.<\/p>\n
\nby Maor Harush, directed by Yoav Michaeli
\nA comedy about an alternative family. Playwright Harush says of this play, \u201cIn Hollywood they crash planes and destroy the world to create interest, I think the most interesting things take place in your living rooms. There isn\u2019t any large looming threat, but family members systematically destroy one another\u2019s lives. [In this play] Tikva (her name means hope in Hebrew) is married to Baruch, a man so ineffective that he is portrayed by a doll in this production.\u201d Add a thirty year old son who is incapable of leaving the nest, and the family portrait is complete.<\/p>\n
\nA great drama about little people. It\u2019s inventory time in the back room of a shoe store. Rivi the sales clerk is pressed for time and Avi, the slightly slow worker who admires her from afar, are drawn into a power struggle that spins out of control.<\/p>\n
\nA detective tragedy. Playwright Erez is playing with language in this drama which centers on the enigmatic \u201cstuff\u201d sold by the merchants, writing in a style which deliberately fractures the syntax of the dialogues, plot and chronology. Berdugo the merchant tells his beloved Bracha: \u201cYou are as clean as an electric blanket\u201d \u2013 wonder what that \u201cstuff\u201d is he\u2019s selling\u2026<\/p>\n
\nA satiric opera based on Kafka\u2019s Metamorphosis
\nThe title is a take-off on the Hebrew title for Kafka\u2019s tale: The Gillgull, which means metamorphosis, or reincarnation in Hebrew. One morning, Gabi Gadot, high-tech wiz kid, wakes up to discover that he has become\u2026an Arab. Says Lahav: \u201cKafka wrote about the Jews in Europe and was considered one of the foreshadowers of the Holocaust. Here, we cannot help but make the comparison to the way of relating to the enemy \u2013 abstract, distant, monstrous, and living among us.\u201d Brenner added to this comment saying, \u201cThis is a satire of the bourgeois left, we are not talking about the right wing\u2019s inability to accept the \u2018other\u2019 \u2013 we are talking about ourselves, the audience at Tzavta, the bourgeois left who watch gourmet cooking shows on their plasma TVs and eat zucchini fettucini.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nA Biblical mini-musical. The play is based on the Biblical story of Michal as told in Book II of Samuel. When King David danced before the procession leading the Holy Ark into Jerusalem, his wife, Michal, laughed. Her punishment was harsh \u2013 the Bible says that she never bore a child, and does not mention her further. Hazon\u2019s play takes up the story of Michal, twenty years after the incident.<\/p>\n