The life of Sonia Peres, the wife of Israel’s ninth president, Shimon Peres, reimagined by lyricist Shachar Shamai and composer Guy Frati now told in a musical, will go on stage at Haifa Theater at the beginning of February. The title role is performed by two actresses – incarnating Sonia at different times of her life – Miki Kam and Sappir Baumvoll. Sonia – The Musical takes the audience on a trip down memory lane, employing hindsight to examine the lives of Sonia and Shimon Peres (played by Zohar Badash).
Sonia stood by her husband during his long career as a statesman, yet declined to join him at Beit HaNassi at a moment that many view as the crowning achievement of his political life. An intensely private person during her lifetime, it is doubtful she would have enjoyed this foray into her intimate life.
“I think Peres’s presidency was the proverbial straw which broke the camel’s back,” Shamai told The Jerusalem Post. “In how I depicted things,” he added, “the gulf between them began to grow the moment he entered politics.”
Frati inserted musical cues which allow us to infer how the characters feel while the music reflects their own historical moment. “Right after the young Sonia (Baumvoll) sings about her joy living in Kibbutz Alumot, Shimon enters the stage and tells her they are going to New York,” Frati told the Post.
The historical Peres used his time in the 1950s US to convince Al Schwimmer to make aliyah and found Israel Aerospace Industries. Frati instructed the orchestra to play mournful music when Sonia hears the news about the move to offer a “woe is me” effect.
Music that takes you back to another era
Kam is splendid when she rebukes the conductor who, not noticing the change in her life, attempts to resume the previous kibbutz melody.
“Blame Shimon,” she says, “I would have stayed.”
As Shimon, Badash commands the conductor to start something new, upbeat Big Band music. These sounds move us, mentally, to the proper time period while also showing us an important emotional truth. It is because Shimon is so successful that Sonia is conflicted. By his side, she sees history in the making. The price is that she is not living the authentic life she imagined for herself. The set tree she planted in the soil of the kibbutz when the performance began is now transformed into a glittering Christmas tree. This is but one wise visual clue set designer Shani Tur offers.
Frati offers another sly, erudite, musical hint. The overture to a song about how the couple attempted to bridge the growing emotional distance between them with important, nation-building work, is Bizet’s “Habanera” from Carmen. Lifted from an opera devoted to the all-powerful nature of love, it is used in a musical about how love is not always able to resist the charms of state power.
“On stage, we offer a version of Sonia that reclaims, after a fashion, some of Shimon’s decisions,” Shamai shared. “We have her sing ‘When Shimon’s mind was in a fix/ I added hashish to the chocolate cake mix’ as one example.”
Based on real people and a history that is widely known, Sonia is a musical fantasy.
“Some people regard Peres as the alleged ‘Architect of the Occupation,’” Shamai said, “some have placed him on a pedestal. As a writer, my motivation is a desire to depict humanity, not to encourage a personality cult.”
During one performance, two elderly women huffed and walked out of the theater when on-stage-Shimon sang the “Loser” song. During his 1997 speech, aired on television, the unfortunate real Peres asked his own Labor party members a rhetorical question, “Am I a loser?” He was met with a stunning “Yes.”
Peres persisted and posed another question. “A leader is meant to be a killer?” He asked, then answered “No! A leader is meant to be a healer!”
With musical nods to Buddy’s Blues and Mister Cellophane, the fictional Peres in Sonia not only dances in “Loser,” he opens his heart to us. The loss he mourns isn’t in the ballot box, it is losing the woman who stood by his side for decades.
Sonia will premiere at Haifa Theater on Saturday, February 3; Sunday, February 4; and Thursday, March 7; at 8:30 p.m. The Revolution Orchestra is led by conductors Roy Oppenheim and Nir Cohen-Shalit. The musical is 80 minutes long; Hebrew only. NIS 250 per ticket. Bookings (04) 860-0500. 50 Pevzner St. Parking available at 25 Pevzner St.