{"id":4521,"date":"2010-04-20T03:50:26","date_gmt":"2010-04-20T10:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=4521"},"modified":"2010-04-25T01:11:56","modified_gmt":"2010-04-25T08:11:56","slug":"tonight-oedipus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=4521","title":{"rendered":"Tonight: Oedipus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Zvi Sahar and Karin Marom in Tonight - Oedipus\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oded Littman and Zvi Sahar are looking for a hero \u2013 aren\u2019t we all? Their search led them to create Tonight:<\/em> Oedipus<\/em> \u2013 a darkly seductive and entertaining version of Sophocles\u2019 Oedipus Rex<\/em> showing monthly at Hasimta Theatre, with the next performances on April 22 & 23. As fate would have it, I saw the play on March 4 – the final night of the popular Israeli reality show \u201cHaAh HaGadol 2\u201d (Big Brother).<\/p>\n

The stage is set like a cabaret stage, with lights on the black floor and a classic white pillar off to one side, as a nod to its classic origins. A woman (Karin Marom) in a glittering black evening gown enters pulling a long red cable; she sets a microphone on the stand and turns her back to the audience. A man (Zvi Sahar) approaches the mic, dressed in black with a bow tie; he is clearly the Master of Ceremonies for this evening. \u201cOut there, outside this room,\u201d he says, with an enigmatic, almost manic smile, \u201cthe situation is not so good\u2026politics, the economy, after all, even morals are a sort of problem \u2013 perhaps even\u2026tragic.\u201d He giggles.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t worry, he pulls out a dog-eared copy of Oedipus Rex<\/em> (in Aharon Shabtai\u2019s translation) and assures the audience that they are about to see \u201cSophocles original.\u201d<\/p>\n

If reality is a form of entertainment and tragedy brings on the giggles, one might well ask: \u201cWhere have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?\u201d (sung by Bonnie Tyler circa mid-80s from the soundtrack to the movie Footloose<\/em>) Out there, our reality is far removed from the world of classic Greek drama, where human fate is determined by the gods. What relationship can we have to these texts and the issues they raise, in the context of theatre and our lives? In the absence of gods, is reality created by the presenters, the MCs in control of the evening and our fate? Can there be a contemporary hero, and is Oedipus (Nadav Nates) a hero, or just another player, cleverly manipulated by the MC?<\/p>\n

The opening moments of Tonight: Oedipus<\/em> led me to expect an evening offering a critique of contemporary Israeli culture in the form of a satiric cabaret, but Littman and Sahar, who conceived and adapted the play, have nothing quite so simple in mind.\u00a0 It is indeed the original text as written by Sophocles, with some crucial exceptions \u2013 the parts of the chorus have been re-written as the cynical commentary of the controlling MC. Under Littman\u2019s direction, this play in which so much depends on sight, blindness and knowledge in its many forms, turns Sophocles\u2019 \u201coriginal\u201d inside out. Everything is revealed and displayed on the surface, from props to actors portraying different characters within the play. As the MC and the woman he calls Motek take on different roles, his overt manipulation of Motek and Oedipus is glaringly explicit.<\/p>\n

The post-modern self-consciousness ironically draws the audience into complicity. We already know the play, and in our implicit dialogue with the MC, we are \u201cin the know\u201d, as are the characters in the play. Yet in the MC\u2019s direct address, the audience becomes a character as well \u2013 we are the people of Thebes. The characters in the play, from Creon and Jocasta (Marom), to blind Tiresias and the shepherd of Laius (Sahar), and the final messenger (Marom) \u2013 they are always also the MC and Motek, and as such, always aware of their role in the drama and the reaction of the audience and Oedipus. This thrusts the all-knowing audience into a position of identification with Oedipus – to a certain extent, we do feel what he feels, as both audience and Oedipus are manipulated by the MC. The distancing mechanisms in the structure of the play are the ones that draw the audience closer.<\/p>\n

Sahar is the ultimate actor\/manipulator, delivering a virtuoso performance. His ability to immerse himself in the character to an insane degree \u2013 his facial muscles grow slack and his body weak as the old and weary Tiresias \u2013 and then snap out of it in the blink of an eye is mesmerizing. As Tiresisas, he is the embodiment of blindness and insight, as the shepherd, he is just one of the guys, eager to help Oedipus \u2013 and yet, he is the entertainer, holding the audience as he holds the mic, shaping destiny with the power of his voice and words.<\/p>\n

Karin Marom exudes sexuality, vulnerability and power. The onstage relationship between Sahar and Marom is fascinating in all its manifestations, transformations and subtle shifts in the balance of power. The MC may control destiny, but Motek is the one who elicits our empathy. And as for Oedipus (Nadav Nates) \u2013 is he a na\u00efve pawn in this game? Or is he a hero?<\/p>\n

Tonight: Oedipus<\/strong> <\/em>based on Sophocles\u2019 Oedipus Rex
\n<\/em>Concept and adaptation: Oded Littman and Zvi Sahar
\nDirector: Oded Littman
\nSet and costume design: Aya Zeiger
\nMusic: Nitzan Shahar, Shlomi Mantzur
\nMovement: Dana Yahalomi
\nAssistant directors: Anahel Ben Avraham, Ran Yatim
\nLighting: Yair Vardi<\/p>\n

Performances: April 22 at 21:00, April 23 at 21:30, Tickets: 03-6812126
\nHasimta Theatre, 3 Mazal Dagim, Yafo<\/p>\n

AYELET DEKEL<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oded Littman and Zvi Sahar are looking for a hero \u2013 aren\u2019t we all? Their search led them to create Tonight: Oedipus \u2013 a darkly seductive and entertaining version of Sophocles\u2019 Oedipus Rex showing monthly at Hasimta Theatre, with the next performances on April 22 & 23. As fate would have it, I saw the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}