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Israel Festival 2008: Possessed by Dybbuks |
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The 2008 Israel Festival will host some 1,000 dance, music and theatre artists from Israel and the rest of the world, celebrating Israel's 60th anniversary. It will also mark the 90th birthday of Habimah National Theatre with a special production of The Dybbuk, which remains the symbol of Habimah to this day, performed by Polish theatre TR Warszawa, as well as three international premiers of Israeli Dybbuk productions. The Polish production, directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, merges Ansky's The Dybbuk with an adaptation of a short story by Hanna Krall about an American man tormented by the spirit of his half-brother who was killed in the Warsaw ghetto. Unlike Ansky's tale, in Krall's story the protagonist is loathe to rid himself of the spirit in order to keep the memory of the Holocaust and pre-war Jewish culture in Poland alive. Israeli actress Orna Porat also performs in the play. Other contemporary productions of The Dybbuk explore various dybbuks, each in its own unique language and style, including dance, theatre and puppet theatre. Dybbuks, written and directed by Mor Frank, is a modern adaptation of a collection of dybbuk tales from various places in Eastern Europe and Israel. The play reveals the dybbuk as the eternal struggle between body and soul, between man and woman. In the Dead of the Night, conceived by Renana Raz and Ofer Amram, is a dance-theatre performance dealing with the dybbuk myth – "the world above", "between two worlds" and "the world below". Between Two Worlds, directed and performed by Shmuel Shohat, incorporates puppet theatre as a form of imagery through which the material world is manoeuvred by the spiritual world. The stage becomes a séance during which characters are raised from the dead. The tension between the actor and the puppet, the manipulator and the manipulated, throws new light on The Dybbuk. Another Israeli production to feature at the Festival is Aliza Elion Israeli's Rondo, performed by Theatre Company Jerusalem in an unusual location: the Museum of the Jewish Prisoners of the Underground, the Russian Compound. In a development town by the sea shore one moon-lit night, students from the same graduate class – a typical Israeli class – meet after 30 years. The group dances the rondo, a circle dance, with recurring steps which symbolize the consolidation of the group, their happiness and strength. However, during the dance the cards are reshuffled and the inner secrets below the bogus surface of success are revealed. As with each year, the Festival is staging an extravagant production in the Sultan's Pool in Jerusalem, which this year is dedicated to the Songs of Israeli Cinema – from its beginnings in 1955 with the film "Hill 24 Doesn't Answer" until the present day. All the songs, to be performed to new arrangements, will be sung either by the singers who made them famous, or by a new generation of singers. Segments from the films will be screened during the performance. Jerusalem, City of Heavenly and Earthly Peace is another special music project at the Festival. The renowned Spanish musician Jordi Savall returns to the Festival with his early music ensemble Hespèrion XXI and the Capella Reial de Catalunya choir in a special project including a group of Israeli musicians, both Jews and Arabs, led by Yair Dalal, one of Israel's top musicians. The group includes 8 shofar players, 4 sufi musicians, and a psalm singer. The project, the result of many years of fastidious research, premiered in Paris last April, and is dedicated to Jerusalem's Jewish, Christian and Muslim heritage. Debka Fantasy, directed by Yisrael Borochov, is a special evening that transforms the songs of yesteryears into arrangements which merit preservation over time. The mix of western and oriental musical instruments – the oud, jumbush and sumsumiya with violins, viola and double bass – in a performance by some of the leading Jewish and Arab musicians in Israel creates an evening of entirely authentic music of the modern revival of Israeli cultural tradition. The Karbido Company will perform The Table, turning this object into a unique and professional musical instrument which they play in concert. The music produced is derived from well-known tunes from the four corners of the world. "Awesome, manic and witty" is how a critic who attended their concert at the Edinburgh Festival described the group. The children's section of the Festival will include an enchanting and colorful stage version of Erich Kästner's novel Emil and the Detectives, which takes young audiences on a fun-filled adventure full of suspense together with Emil and his friends in search of the robber who stole Emil's money in the train. Under the direction of Rafi Niv in the spirit of Kästner, the children in the audience become the actors' accomplices as they turn to them for advice. (#3300) Related Links:
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