{"id":8206,"date":"2010-11-03T13:54:38","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T20:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=8206"},"modified":"2010-11-04T08:17:18","modified_gmt":"2010-11-04T15:17:18","slug":"etc-convenes-at-the-cameri-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=8206","title":{"rendered":"ETC Convenes at the Cameri Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Noam Semel, General Director of the Cameri\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cDemonstrators always sit in the last row, they don\u2019t want anyone on their back,\u201d said Noam Semel, General Director of the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv, as he addressed the members of the European Theatre Convention (ETC) on the set of \u201cOh God!\u201d where a recent performance had been disrupted as part of the ongoing heated debate over performing in Ariel. The ETC convened in Israel for the first time this year, despite calls to boycott Israel, and those who participated were able to experience for themselves the complex, contradictory and often confrontational reality that is Israel, and Israeli theatre.<\/p>\n

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Jean Claude Berutti, ETC President and Artistic Director of La Comedie de Saint-Etienne\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Founded in 1988, the ETC is a theatre advocacy network that promotes all aspects of theatre, access to culture, artistic exchange and intercultural dialogue and encourages cooperation between theatres and cultures. The group\u2019s events took place from October 28 \u2013 31, and included tours of Jerusalem, Ramallah and Jenin in addition to lectures, discussion sessions, and attending several plays at the Cameri. Based on my impressions from the first day of meetings on Friday, October 29, 2010, the conference offered many opportunities for exchange of ideas, and abundant material for reflection. The theme for this year\u2019s meeting was \u201cMultilingualism in Theatre\u201d and the event itself was multilingualism in action as representatives from 17 different countries gathered in Cameri 5 \u2013 the theatre\u2019s new rehearsal space. Jean Claude Berutti, ETC President and Artistic Director of La Comedie de Saint-Etienne addressed the assembly in French, while others chose English as their mode of communication, while simultaneous translation made the discussions accessible to all.<\/p>\n

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Professor David Alexander\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The sessions began with Professor David Alexander\u2019s talk on \u201cPolitical Satire of the Israeli Theatre,\u201d an excellent introduction to this strange place, Israel. Describing Israel as a country where \u201ceverything is reconstructed as satire,\u201d he spoke of Hanoch Levin\u2019s satiric works, including \u201cQueen of the Bathtub\u201d performed at the Cameri Theatre in 1970. Although the text itself might be perceived as \u201clukewarm\u201d according to Alexander, the review provoked extreme reactions at the time, as on the stage, \u201cpeople night after night dared to call to change the outcome of the 1967 war.\u201d Taken off the stage after only 19 performances, and \u201cnever again produced on the Israeli stage,\u201d as Alexander said, \u201cthe play became a symbol for years to come.\u201d Alexander expressed the main tenet of Levin\u2019s political satires: \u201cwe have become a society that readily sacrifices its children\u2026we have sanctified the term of loss\u2026we are proud at being one big bereaved family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander said that \u201cIsrael is a paradise for satirists\u201d where \u201cfreedom of speech prevails\u201d and \u201ceven prime time TV is dedicated many times to satiric programs.\u201d Alexander compared this ability to criticize events as they are happening to the Greek satire of Aristophanes -\u201cwritten at a time of war against war,\u201d commenting, that it \u201csays something about us as a society, the strength and effectiveness of our theatre and culture as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Joshua Sobol\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alexander\u2019s talk was followed by a panel discussion of the current controversy \u2013 whether Israeli theatres should perform in Ariel, which is located beyond the green line. A letter was sent by prominent actors, playwrights and other members of the Israeli theatrical community to the Cameri and other Israeli theatres saying that they will refuse to perform at the new cultural center in Ariel. The ensuing conversation gave the visitors a sense of the vitality of debate in Israel. Participating in the discussion were playwright Joshua Sobol, who said \u201cI was one of the first signators;\u201d theatre director and lawyer Ori Egoz, who clarified some of the legal aspects and expressed the claim that people have \u201ca universal right to see art;\u201d playwright Edna Mazya, author of \u201cOh God!\u201d who also signed the letter; and actor Yossi Garber, who is scheduled to perform in the play \u201cTuesdays with Morrie\u201d in Ariel.<\/p>\n

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Ori Egoz\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cameri General Director Noam Semel provided background to the debate explaining that one of the guiding principles for cultural institutions in Israel is a commitment to equal access for all residents, whether they live near an urban center or in the periphery. As for the letter protesting performances in Ariel, Semel noted that until this event, actor Yossi Pollak was \u201cthe only one who said I don\u2019t want to perform there\u2026the only one who said it in advance, before signing a contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Edna Mazya\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite her support of boycotting the cultural center in Ariel, Mazya said, \u201cwhen I see all the world coming on top of us, boycotting us, I don\u2019t accept that they will tell us what to do.\u201d Garber embodies the complexity of the situation \u2013 as a member of the cast of Levin\u2019s \u201cQueen of the Bathtub\u201d in 1970 he recalled, \u201cI was spat upon\u2026for 35 years no one said a word. It\u2019s a good thing this came out.\u201d Yet rather than boycott performing in Ariel, he advocated the use of theatre as an educational tool for change, saying \u201cThis is our weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Yossi Garber\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sobol responded that \u201csatire loses its effect, our country is saturated with satire\u2026we do not have the illusion anymore that theatre is influential.\u201d However, he added that \u201ccultural boycotts on Israel strengthen the Israeli right [in their belief that] the entire world hates us, they are all anti-Semites\u2026it\u2019s counter effective and counter productive. But inside Israel we have to use that as an expression of not agreeing.\u201d Ori Egoz compared performing in Ariel to performing in prisons, saying that while she may not agree with the behavior of the prisoners, who have been judged and found guilty of their actions, she still feels that they have a human right of access to culture. Sobol responded to this statement by saying, \u201cIf you define Ariel as a prison and the people who live there as criminals, I will perform there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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ETC General Assembly in Tel Aviv, October 28, 2010\/Photo: Elizur Reuveni<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moving from the present to visions of the future with \u201cMultilingualism in the Theatre of the Future,\u201d the tone took a more optimistic turn. The session was moderated by Dubravka Vrgo\u010d, Vice president of the ETC, with the following speakers: Haris Pa\u0161ovi\u0107, Artistic director of the East West Theatre Company; Jean-Claude Berutti, President of the ETC; and Toma\u017e Topori\u0161i\u010d, Dramaturge, Translator, Mladinsko Theatre Ljubljana.<\/p>\n

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Haris Pa\u0161ovi\u0107, Director of the East West Theatre Company<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Haris Pa\u0161ovi\u0107, Director and founder of the East West Theatre Company in Sarajevo, described his recent ambitious venture into multilingualism, \u201cFootball, Football\u201d which involved actors from seven different countries, speaking nine different languages. Pa\u0161ovi\u0107 made a plea for intercultural exchange and representation for language minorities within the dominant cultural context, cautioning that \u201cEurope becomes more and more racist.\u201d Adding that the movies have made more progress than theatre in terms of incorporating multilingualism, Pa\u0161ovi\u0107 gave a poignant example from the film \u201cThe Bubble\u201d (Israel 2006, directed by Eytan Fox, written by Fox and Gal Uchovsky) \u2013 the scene where the Israeli Noam (Ohad Knoller) leaves a note for his Palestinian lover (Yousef Sweid) saying, \u201cI\u2019m sorry I don\u2019t know how to say I love you in Arabic.\u201d Pa\u0161ovi\u0107 concluded by saying, \u201cI am not a pacifist, I am not na\u00efve. I am a survivor of the latest genocide in Europe, but I am an artist. Without utopia, without dreams we cannot move forward. I ask that we all learn the word love in all languages, at least while we are here.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cDemonstrators always sit in the last row, they don\u2019t want anyone on their back,\u201d said Noam Semel, General Director of the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv, as he addressed the members of the European Theatre Convention (ETC) on the set of \u201cOh God!\u201d where a recent performance had been disrupted as part of the ongoing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-theater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8206","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=8206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}