The Israel Festival 2012: four weeks of performances by performers from Israel and abroad!
23.05.2012 - 14.06.2012
The Israel Festival is the largest and most important international arts and cultural festival in the land and has chosen Jerusalem as its eternal home (save for a few scattered events in other cities).
For more information about the festival and to order tickets visit the festival's official website.
Theatre/ Inter-disciplinary Performances:
YAMATO The Drummers of Japan
Gamushara
24.5.2012 | 20:00 | Mount Scopus Amphitheater
Director: Masa Ogawa
Actors: Masa Ogawa, Takeru Matsushita, Akiko Ogawa, Mika Miyazaki, Midori Tamai, Saori Higashi, Marika Nito, Gen Hidaka, Hisato Fukuda, Madoka Higashi, Jun Kato, Subaru Imai, Takuya Shirakawa
Yamato is the name of a group of Japanese drummers founded in 1993, which has since been performing at major venues throughout Asia, Europe, and the US.
Five years following its establishment, this group presented its first show at the Fringe Theater Festival in Edinburgh, where it received the "Spirit of Fringe" award. This performance led to an international breakthrough, and they have performed for around 5 million viewers in over 50 countries worldwide.
The members of this group use traditional instruments to create modern music. This unusual combination results in a theatrical-musical adventure on the highest artistic level. Group members are motivated by the motto: "Go wherever you have been called and transform the world into a happier place."
Indeed, this "happiness" is palpable in every moment on stage...
This performance showcases the remarkable talent of musicians with outstanding musical and movement skills, and involves no spectacular effects. It is a dynamic, humor-filled event that combines tradition and modernity, and provides the audience with two hours of breathtaking rhythm and energy.
Duration of performance: two hours, with intermission
Les Deux Mondes
Living Memory
27.5.2012 | 21:00 | Rebecca Crown Auditorium
28.5.2012 | 20:30 | Rebecca Crown Auditorium
29.5.2012 | 20:30 | Rebecca Crown Auditorium
Actress: Véronique Marchand
Multimedia and Visual Concept: Yves Dubé
Props: Michel Fordin and Guy Fortin
Director and Visual Concept: Daniel Meilleur
Lighting: André Houle
Director: Daniel Meilleur
Costumes: Mireille Vachon
Les Deux Mondes theater group was founded in 1973, and initially created theatrical performances for children. It later began performing for adults, and its productions feature clown acts, puppets, objects and props, storytelling and musical elements.
In this production, these various aspects of the theater world are combined in a celebration of the joy of life.
Towards the end of her life, as she approaches her one-hundredth birthday, the protagonist of this play remembers various events from her past. Many years have elapsed since her childhood, and yet something in her still makes her feel and look young... perhaps precisely because part of her is no longer in this world.
Her toys slowly appear and surround her. Some of them fill her with joy and happiness, while others remind her of moments of separation and sadness. These objects enable her to share with the audience an honest, intelligent, and moving story about life.
"Living Memory" calmly examines memory and time past, and reminds us that life is a short and concise game.
Through the use of multimedia technologies and poetic staging, this performance is a tribute to the joy that suffuses our life.
This production will be alternately performed in Israel in French and in English.
From the Reviews:
"Living Memory brings to the stage scenes of the kind we may experience only in our dreams..."
(Catherine Hebert, Voir)
"The innovative character of this performance lies in its unique and poetic use of technological means..."
(Claudio sillva , Milenio)
"A metaphorical display of a magical childhood space... a highly imaginative world... captures the viewer with at the performance's end, the audience seems to have just returned from a journey to a fantastic world..."
(Gabriel Jimenez Bernal ,El Universal)
The performance is in English with Hebrew subtitles
Duration of performance: 60 minutes, without intermission
Aurelia Thierree In the production: " Murmures des Murs"
Directed by: Victoria Thierree Chaplin
27.5.2012 | 21:30 | The Jerusalem Theatre, Sherover Hall
Director: Victoria Thierrée Chaplin
Participants: Aurélia Thierrée, Jaime D. Martinez, Magnus Jakobsson
Murmures des Murs (Murmuring of the Walls) is a highly imaginative fantasy that combines various components of the theatrical medium: props, lighting, illusion and magic, dance, acrobatics, and a dynamic stage design. This performance tells the story of a woman whose world consists of stories and fragments of life captured in abandoned buildings, empty apartments and inert objects that come to life. The everyday world of this woman, which consists of cardboard boxes and transparent plastic sheeting, is filled with adventure from the moment the curtain goes up. Her mundane everyday existence is instantly transformed into a fantastic, dreamlike, colorful and tantalizing world freed of the laws of physics...
This performance takes place within an imaginary world, whose protagonist - a woman who was evicted from her home - wanders through the streets and encounters various characters in a strange, mutant structure where the staircases have no stairs, floods occur, and sea monsters emerge.
Together with her two companions, she wordlessly creates a poetic, humorous, magical, and imaginary world.
From the Reviews
"Aurélia Thierrée is an enchanting performer who moves with grace and is as elegant as they come... Once again her collaborator is her mother, Victoria Thierrée Chaplin, many of whose trademarks are seen here - transformations, fantasy creatures, surreal images and a topsy-turvy world.
(The Stage , Liz Arratoon)
"...an air of romance and illuminated by moments of playful humor... ]Aurélia] appears among equal talents and is not the only delight in this strange creation... Magnus Jakobsson matches these robust skills ... Jaime Martinez moves with quicksilver agility and lithe attraction."
(British Theatre Guide, Howard Loxton)
Duration of performance: 75 minutes, without intermission
The Forman Brothers
Obludarium
1.6.2012 | 16:30 | The Jerusalem Theatre Plaza
6.6.2012 | 21:00 | The Jerusalem Theatre Plaza
28.5.2012 | 21:00 | The Jerusalem Theatre Plaza
Director: Petr Forman
Choreographer: Veronika Svabova
Technical Director: Matej Forman
Lighting: Petr Horky
Sound: Fernando Solis and Philippe Tivillier
Production Manager: Klara Doubravova
Actors: Matej Forman, Petr Forman, Josef Sodomka, Petr Pisa, Milan Forman, Vladimir Javorsky
Dancers: Petra Brabcova, Kristyna Liska Bokova, Veronika Svabova, Miroslav Kochanek
Musicians: Jan Cizek, Jakub Masek, Jan Andr, Stanislav Macha
The Foreman Brothers present a two-hour-long cabaret-circus in an impressive circus tent, whose appearance is deceiving (I don't understand the appearance is deceiving-rewrite maybe say "with a deceiving appearance").
This performance attempts to redefine the circus through and successfully creating a new meaning, while enhancing the connection between cabaret and circus performances.
The creators of this performance set off to undermine the conventions of commercial theater, and to present on stage a world attuned to the most basic feelings, a world that respects simplicity and embraces enigmas and mysteries.
Assembled in the arena of this cabaret-circus are 15 jugglers, dancers, actors, and more who combine remarkable physical, creative, and theatrical skills. The characters presented on stage are intriguing, distorted and grotesque, in accordance with the picturesque image of itinerant circuses.
This unique experience culminates a direct encounter between audience members and performers, who are transformed into hosts toasting their guests with glasses of traditional Czech beer.
Reviews and Awards: This performance was the recipient of the 2009 award for best Czech theater performance, and was described by CIRQUE/SPECTACLE as a stunning visual performance that challenges the conventions of mainstream theater.
Duration of performance: Two hours and 15 minutes, without intermission
The event is part of Days Prague
This theatrical production combines various elements of martial arts to present a poetic, dramatic portrayal of Kungfu and of Chinese culture, art, and philosophy.
This performance is composed of nine scrolls that are revealed to the audience one after the other, presenting the fundamental elements of Kungu: purity, sutra, persistence and studiousness, spirituality, attention, fitness, calm, devotion and fidelity, and paradise. These elements are presented in a romantic and poetic manner that transforms this performance into a celebration for the senses.
Each scroll slowly reveals the story behind the art of Kungfu. Together, they undermine the superficial understanding of Kungfu as a form of martial arts practiced by superheros who fight each other to death.
The result is a harmonious fusion of Chinese dance and martial arts, which requires remarkable precision and technical skill.
This performance is a celebration for the eye and ear, and is appropriate for all ages.
Duration of performance: one-and-a-half hours, without intermission
Directed and Written by: George Mann
Co-Devised and performed by: Kim Heron, George Mann and Deborah Pugh
Music: Kim Heron and George Mann
Producer: Nir Paldi
Dramaturgy: Amy Nostbakken and Nir Paldi
Lighting: Peter Harrison
Costumes: Clare Amos
Set Design: Francesco Gorni
Masks: Victoria Beaton
Life's magical moments inspired the performance "Translunar Paradise," which premiered at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival.
This wordless performance combines pantomime, movement, and live music, inviting the audience to embark on a journey of life, death, and eternal love.
Following his wife's death, William escapes to a paradise of fantasy filled with faraway memories in order to cope with the terrible sadness provoked by this loss. His tangible memories bring back his wife, Rose, who returns from the world of the dead to visit her husband, in order to urge him to part with his memories and move on with his life.
Rose arrives carrying a suitcase that contains memories of the past related to meaningful events in the couple's shared life. The piece portrays moments of sadness, fear, joy, and especially deep love.
Using simple theatrical means on a bare stage, the three performers move along the axis of time as they dance the story of this couple's life, donning and removing masks as they wordlessly present one of the most moving productions to be seen at the Edinburgh Festival in recent years.
From the reviews:
"...a unique work that is powerful, stunning, moving, and yes, extremely special."
(Kenneth Scott, Edinburgh Guide).
"I really cannot recommend this highly enough - it is not just one of the best shows I have seen at this year's fringe, but any fringe."
(Alistair Smith, The Stage)
"Translunar Paradise so moved me..."
(Observer)
Duration of performance: 70 minutes, without intermission
The Parade
7.6.2012 | 21:00 | Rebecca Crown Auditorium
8.6.2012 | 16:00 | Rebecca Crown Auditorium
9.6.2012 | 21:15 | Rebecca Crown Auditorium
PARADE
Book By Music & Lyrics by
ALFRED UHRY JASON ROBERT BROWN
Co-Conceived and Directed on Broadway by
HAROLD PRINCE
This production presented by permission of JOSEF WEINBERGER LIMITED
on behalf of MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL of New York
By: Alfred Uhry
Music: Jason Robert Brown
Director: Moshe Kepten
Music Director: Yossi Ben-noon
Set Design: Bambi Friedman
Lighting: Ori Morag
Participants: Alastair Brookshaw (London), Adam Chandler (New York), Kelsey Crouch Pinter (New York) , Roni Daloomi (Israel), Hanny Nahmias (Isarel), Michael Har-Paz (Israel)
The musical Parade is based on a true story that took place in Atlanta in 1913, when Leo Frank, a Jewish accountant at a pencil factory, was tried and convicted for the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl named Mary Phagan. This event provoked serious interracial tensions, leading to one of the worst waves of anti-Semitism America has ever known.
The musical was first produced on Broadway in 1998, and was nominated for nine Tony Awards and Drama Desk Awards.
This special production for the Israel Festival features 28 American, English, and Israeli actors, in collaboration with the Yoram Levinstie Art School and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.
The musical is performed in English, with Hebrew subtitles.
Duration of performance: two-and-a-half hours, with intermission
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