Premiere: 3 May 2024
Hanoch Levin (1943-1999), the most prominent figure in Israeli playwriting, was particularly skilled at creating satirical cabarets. With a lyrical tone combined with biting humor and brutal honesty, he reveals the clumsiness of the ordinary person in navigating life’s twists and turns. He does this with such an absurd approach that we hardly notice that he’s talking about us—or perhaps the person sitting right next to us in the audience. This is best evidenced 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 titular characters and further complicated by a bizarre love triangle involving a woman who is unworthy of their affections.
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,” only to go searching for love and stumble upon the woman of his dreams — at least at first sight — the so-called pianist Shahash? What will be the consequence of Leidental’s peculiar form of rebellion, offering himself as a “wedding gift” to Yaacobi and Shahash? Árpád Árkosi’s production, expanded into a musical farce, reveals all.
Director: Árpád Árkosi
