Although it is an old and beloved Israeli classic, yesterday it seemed that the stars aligned again and the “Beit Lisin” theater gave its interpretation of the play “Apples from the Desert” written by Savion Liebrecht. Another version, funny, witty, real and open, which was delivered modestly in the small hall on the 2nd floor.
I write this review quickly, and without deletions. Maybe it’s the era, and maybe the excellent cast that kept the show going, but what’s certain is that the dialogue created on stage with the poor setting, invited every woman to observe the conditions of her existence from then until today.
The play “Apples from the Desert” tells about a conservative family of Eastern origin, living in Jerusalem under strict and orderly norms and a way of life of observing mitzvot. The father of the family is Reuven Abarbanal (Yonatan Charzi) who reigns terror in maintaining the family’s honor, in a controversial manner, while his wife Victoria (Tiki Dayan) is the perfect representation of a submissive woman, whose small victory is freedom from her husband’s shackles.
The two have an only child named Rebecca who, upon reaching the age of 18, chooses to break the boundaries of her parents’ home and the society in which she lives. The brave and curious Rivka spends her free time in the secular part of the city and there she meets a young man, Dubh’la his name (Gal Amitai). The two share common hobbies and sneak into places together that get Rebecca into trouble.
Victoria the mother discovers what is happening throughout the plot through her unmarried sister Sara (mercifully Lezlan), who is played with genius by Irit Laban, and in the representation of the three women – the mother, the daughter and the aunt – three types of worldviews are revealed to us.
The uniqueness of the play is expressed in the opportunity it gives the viewers in general, and the female audience in particular, to observe. First there is the ability to discern and question the conditions of the hostile patriarchal order. And secondly, there is a dialogue between the mother and her house that takes place in dim hours and in jarring whispers. A dialogue that allows each woman to decide where she wants to be in terms of the size of her existence and how free she is to feel what her soul loves.
While returning home from the theater, walking through the streets of Tel Aviv in seven-centimeter high heels, I thought about the character of Dubhla, who is a real Gal, whose entire purpose in the play was to be a “tall” guy. Suddenly I found myself stumbling and a nice guy extends his hand and asks “if everything is alright?”. I wondered about the irony in that.
Our constant attempt as a society to try to be “higher” with “high ambitions” and how is it possible without the cliché “the sky is the limit” when in the end we stumble and all we need is a raised hand, check that we are breathing. hand regardless of religion, race and length. “Apples from the desert” tells us on a wide variety of levels and normalizes the simplicity of life. While the plot presents the sectarian divide in a way we are not used to, I shifted in my chair.
If we travel back in time to the time of the establishment of the state, somewhere in the late 1950s, belonging to Ashkenazi status and origin was a dream. But in this case, what we shamefully call “Israel the first” and “Israel the second” gets another face. The father who goes by the name “Abarbanal”, and if you were to ask me it’s no coincidence at all, is played by Yonatan Cherzi in a shockingly accurate way. I mean, there were moments during the show that the staged expression, along with the words and the raising of the hand made me afraid, until my body could not bear it.
Modern infatuation (Photo: Kafir Bolotin)The honor of the witty play of course goes to an outstanding direction and an unparalleled script, but it is impossible to ignore the woman, the actress and the unrestrained personality of Lirit Laban. Well, maybe I’m a little biased from previous projects she’s done, but her role in the play alongside Tiki Dayan, whose other name is “Living Legend”, is not an easy move at all. Still, she used every part of her body and added subtle sarcasm that left the audience speechless and howling with laughter.
The character of Aunt Sarah, who herself is a “black sheep”, shows us how the social laws painted an older unmarried woman as a cursed woman, just as our mother Sarah was. And yet, she was a figure of a strong woman who accepts all her shortcomings and is proud of her choices. Sara is the expression of the apple that grows in the desert, she is the bus to freedom and she is the choice to be a woman as she pleases.
And while Sarah is the figure in the center of the scale, behind her stands Victoria who chose to live in poverty, and in front of her is Rebecca who broke her own limits. The one who does not agree to put up with Mr. Fate and throughout the play manages to normalize every tragic event and thus allows the comedy to be realized.
The last one to be praised is a real wave, Duval’a, who almost didn’t open his mouth throughout the whole show, made assumptions and led moves quietly. And besides these, his presence benefited the script, the soft body movements and the lack of knowledge of how to behave in front of a primitive family, which does not hold the principles on which he was brought up in his parents’ house – these were the ones that built the core of the play.
Beyond the extraordinary casting that led me to feel a spectrum of intense emotions, the soundtrack that played throughout the show allowed dichotomies to exist. The transition between the traditional psalm played on Shabbat evening and the kibbutz melody of ‘folk dances’ expressed the extremism between the factions, the difference between the origins and everything we call – the Land of Israel.