Jerusalem theater hits Route 1

The Incubator will be presenting five shows in Tel Aviv.

By BARRY DAVIS
The Incubator Theater (photo credit: Courtesy)
The Incubator Theater
(photo credit: Courtesy)
It is generally accepted that Tel Aviv and its environs are the hub of cultural activity in this country. It is also a fact that, sadly, Tel Avivians rarely trouble themselves to make the 50-minute trip up Route 1 to check out the scene in Jerusalem. But, as they say, if Tel Aviv doesn’t come to Muhammad, Muhammad – or, in this case, Arik – will bring his artistic wares down the road to the big city.
The Arik in question is Arik Eshet, founder and director of the capital’s Incubator Theater, which, for just over a month, will present five of the theater’s shows at Tzavta in Tel Aviv and at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Jaffa.
Eshet says this is not the first cross-highway foray the company has made, and adds that it is very much a matter of needs must. “If you don’t have some presence in Tel Aviv you just don’t exist,” he states. “We are very active in Jerusalem, we do a lot of performances, but you’ve got to be seen to be active in Tel Aviv too.”
In fact, Incubator Theater struts its stuff the length and breadth of the country. Around one quarter of the company’s approximately 200 productions a year are performed outside the capital. “We work in Eilat, Kiryat Shmona, Ra’anana, all over,” says Eshet, “but Tel Aviv has to be part of that equation too.”
The approaching Incubator series in Tel Aviv and Jaffa features a generous dosage of humor of various colors, including satire, parody and black comedy. The program kicks off on June 19 at Tzavta with The Good Doctor, based on an intriguing hybrid of Neil Simon workings of skits and short stories penned by Anton Chekov. The show is directed by Eshet and takes a left-field look at a range of situations, such as a tooth extraction, a clerk who sneezes on his employer and how to seduce a woman through her husband’s good offices.
Synagogue Rock, directed by Eli Haviv, is described as “a comic satirical musical in which conservatism and the new world clash. The production won the Best Show Award at last year’s Gush Etzion Jewish Theater Festival.
The Synagogue Rock performance takes place at Tzavta on June 26.
Matinée (Hatzaga Yomit) is another award-winning item in the lineup.
The physical theater creation, which won three awards at the 2008 International Haifa Theater Festival, manages to overcome language barriers by eschewing dialogue entirely.
Matinée employs a range of theatrical vehicles including pantomime, acrobatics and comedy in parody of the Hollywood movie industry. The family-friendly production, with director Zvika Fishzon at the helm, has done the rounds of festivals across the globe, including in Brazil, Scotland and Turkey, and will be performed at the Suzanne Dellal Center on July 4.
Imagination Island, which is written and directed by David Tzoigenbaum and will be performed at the Suzanne Dellal Center on July 9, feeds off fantasy, imagination and downright silliness in a story in which three youngsters, who unsuspectingly decide to spend the day at a museum, find themselves having to cope with challenging circumstances on a deserted island.
The Incubator Theater’s Tel Aviv series closes at Tzavta on July 12 with The Bible Show, which is described as “a madcap cabaret show that incorporates pantomime, acrobatics, song and dance – suitable for the whole family and for all religions.”
Considering the source material of the production, the appeal to the latter market niche is no mean feat. The Bible Show has been invited to feature in an international theater festival in the Netherlands later this year.
Eshet admits to having ulterior motives to taking his shows on the road. He says the migration of Jerusalemite talent has been a source of constant frustration for him.
“I ran the Jerusalem branch of Nissan Nativ [acting school] for its first 25 years, and each year I witnessed the graduates taking off for Tel Aviv as soon as they completed their studies. Jerusalem is a powerhouse when it comes to education.
There are so many fantastic institutions for studying theater and the arts here – Bezalel, Nissan Nativ, the [Rubin] Academy of Music [and Dance]. But the day after they finish school all the students start looking for work in Tel Aviv because that’s where ‘the industry’ is.”
Eshet says that Incubator Theater came into being to help to redress the relocation imbalance. “A lot of students are Jerusalemites and they want to stay here. I want them to stay here too – both for themselves and for the city. But Jerusalem didn’t have anything to offer these young graduates. I am a Jerusalemite and I have stayed here, but I know how tough it can be.”
As a veteran of over three decades of work in the Jerusalem theater community, Eshet is well qualified to pass judgment on the city’s efforts to sustain and nurture the local cultural community. “Teddy [Kollek] made mistakes,” he declares. “It took the municipality a long long time to understand that you have to invest in culture, to develop the artistic infrastructure here. In cultural terms, Jerusalem developed slowly.”
Eshet has personal experience to back up his words. “When I set up Nissan Nativ in Jerusalem we primarily received support from the Jerusalem Foundation, not the municipality.
We had to keep going for nine years before we got help from the municipality. Culture was very much neglected back then.”
But things have started looking up.
These days the Incubator Theater occupies a fine looking building in Nahlaot, near Mahaneh Yehuda Market, which it shares with two other local theater companies. Even so, Eshet has to work hard to keep things going to keep putting his company’s entertainment wares – which, naturally, enough, he believes offer unique added value – out there.
“There is a lot of comedy in what we do, including parody and satire, and we encourage the actors to create too,” he notes. “We put together shows which are created jointly by the director and the actors. We very much place the emphasis on improvisation and the actors finding their own way through a particular show.”
Judging by the company’s track record to date, that hands-on ethos appears to be yielding impressive fruits, as, no doubt, audiences in Tel Aviv will discover in the near future.