Planned premiere: may 3, 2024.
Hanoch Levin (1943-1999), the most prominent figure in Israeli playwriting, was particularly skilled at creating satirical cabarets. With a lyrical tone, yet with biting humor and brutal honesty, he reveals the clumsiness of the ordinary person in navigating life’s twists and turns. He does this in such an absurd way that we hardly notice that he’s talking about us—or perhaps the person sitting right next to us in the audience. This is evident in one of his most famous plays, Yaacobi & Leidental, where the small-mindedness of human nature—envy, jealousy, the desire for something more—is woven into the friendship and eventual downfall of the two title characters, further complicated by a bizarre love triangle involving a woman who is unworthy of their affections.
But what exactly happens when Yaacobi gets fed up with the bachelor Leidental’s favorite pastimes of playing dominoes and drinking tea, and declares, “I’m different from the likes of you,” then goes in search of love and stumbles upon the woman of his dreams — or so he thinks — the so-called pianist Shahash? And what will be the consequence of Leidental’s peculiar form of rebellion, who offers himself as a “wedding gift” to Yaacobi and Shahash? Árpád Árkosi’s production, expanded into a musical farce, reveals all.
Director: Árkosi Árpád
