A scene from the show "Poper. A Commedy with Songs" by Hanoch Levin, directed by Ana Nowicka; photo: Bartłomiej Sowa / Teatr Nowy in Poznań
The First Annual International Festival of Hanoch Levin is being held in Tel Aviv. There will be 20 performances from Europe and Israel, two of which come from Poland.
The event presents works of Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin, author of such plays as Krum and The Rubber Merchants, whose work is admired internationally and popular in Polish productions. The festival presents not only the popular works of the playwright, but also the creative tensions in his work, which combine poetry, music, theatre, painting, dance and drama.
Each of the pieces and their interpretations are influenced by indigenous cultures – Polish, French, Russian, Slovenian, Israeli and Yiddish – and thus allow the audience to see Levin’s work in a different light.
The Polish productions that will be presented at the festival are Popper by Teatr Nowy in Poznań, directed by Ana Nowicka, and The Labor of Life from the National Theatre in Warsaw, directed by Jan Englert.
Popper is an exceptional show, subtitled “a comedy with songs” by the author, but labeled by many as a tragicomedy. It is the story of a sympathetic neighbor, on who suddenly fall all the ills of the area. Mirosław Kropielnicki says,
This is a very mocking subtitle: like any comedy, this is also deadly serious. One is rarely exposed to a combination of Gombrowicz, Mrożek and Monty Python coming from Tel Aviv.
The Labor of Life ranks among mainstream family comedies. It is the story of complex, difficult relations in a long-term marriage, of warring spouses who cannot live without each other. It also touches on the fear of death, abandonment, forgetting and abortive attempts to seek happiness – as well as the everyday trivial struggles that reveal the smallness and vulnerability of the characters.
More about the presentation
Both plays appear on the stages of the festival among the most celebrated European productions of the Israeli playwright. Polish companies will perform in Polish with subtitles in Hebrew, English, French and Russian.
The festival is organized by the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv
Source: materials from the organizers
Edited: SW 20.06.2013
Translated: Alena Aniskiewicz 21.06.2013