Theater Review: Beersheva Theater Company

There’s no narrative, no time-line. Instead we get a series of vignettes on relationship seen from bachelor Bobby’s point of view.

By HELEN KAYE
Cameri theater cabaret 311 (photo credit: courtesy)
Cameri theater cabaret 311
(photo credit: courtesy)
Stephen Sondheim’s ground-breaking Company still resonates today.
There’s no narrative, no time-line. Instead we get a series of vignettes on marriage/relationship seen from bachelor Bobby’s (Zak Berkman) point of view, or perhaps happening just in his mind.
George Furth’s incisive text, Stephen Sondheim’s edgy music and razor lyrics helped propel the musical to six Tony awards in 1970. Daniel Efrat’s translation is admirable. Writing on Company Sondheim says that it was the first Broadway musical “whose defining characteristic is irony.”
It’s precisely that sense of irony that Rafi Niv’s production lacks. The situations, the characters don’t manage to get outside themselves, don’t manage to intimate their intrinsic absurdity, so that the old-fashioned morality tale on the importance of commitment that we see is actually what we get. The point is that Company fiercely questions that whole idea.
That said, this Company zips smartly along, carried by Niv’s lively direction, Roni Carmel’s adaptable set, Oz Morag’s snappy choreography and a cast that certainly does energy, even if it mostly doesn’t do irony. Those coming closest are Rona Fromchenko as April, Michal Brand as Amy and Sharon Shahal as Sara.