Although it fails to illuminate the human condition, this dreary play about dreary people can act as a cautionary tale.
By HELEN KAYETheater Review 88(photo credit: )Thera
By Zeruya Shalev
Adapted from the book by Pnina and Dorit Gary
Directed by Dedi Baron
Cameri Theater
November 30
Although it fails to illuminate the human condition, this dreary play about dreary people can act as a cautionary tale.
Controversial archeologist Ella (Limor Goldstein), aridly married to fellow-archeologist Amnon (Ohad Shachar), divests herself of husband and family in the name of self-realization. Hounded by guilt and estranged even from her parents (Nissim Zohar and Rivka Michaeli-Sharoni), she is further raked by a prickly relationship with divorced psychiatrist Oded (Gil Frank).
Archeology, via the vanished civilization of Thera (Santorini), is here a metaphor for shattered lives, dreams or aspirations that take time, faith and endless patience to rebuild. The trouble is that in this carelessly directed play, the characters talk at - and never to or with - one another. Certainly nobody listens.
Orna Smorgansky's prison-like space only emphasizes the dysfunction. On the wall there is a clay shard that also screens Ella's more hopeful self, and we want to see in the onstage action a similar need to communicate, which we do not.
Fine actors are here trapped in inadequate roles, none more so than Michaeli, who lends her usual grace and impeccable timing to a thankless turn as a stereotypical Jewish mother. And one supposes that the estimable Limor Goldstein wanders shabbily shifted and barefoot through most of the play in order to demonstrate vulnerability. The only character remotely comfortable is the Father, but then he's mostly (and sensibly) listening to opera.
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store
