In plain terms, the world of theater, and of the arts and culture in general, owes a debt of gratitude to the Gesher Theatre. For the past three-plus decades, since its founding by Yevgeny Aryeh, along with several other new immigrants from Russia, the company has churned out quality cutting-edge theatrical fare, often with rumbling political undertones.
The latter features prominently in the Jaffa-based institution’s Jaffa Fest which takes place at the theater from June 20-July 7. The eight-production bill for the 17th edition of the festival, most of which will be performed on more than one occasion over the 18 days, features a multifarious lineup that takes in original creations, works for children, and a number of offerings from abroad, including Italy, Germany, Serbia, and Russia.
Eclecticism has been core to the Gesher ethos from the get-go as a premeditated move to enrich the entertaining and thought-provoking bottom line.
“In Russia, they say ‘a chicken soup with spices’ is crucial in theater,” says Gesher Theater director general Lena Kreindlin, who made aliyah from Moscow in 1990 and has been at the helm of the thespian outfit since 2007.
The culinary reference illustrates Kreindlin’s and Gesher’s belief that adding different and sometimes seemingly disparate ingredients to the artistic stew can deliver enticing and inspirational rewards for actors and consumers alike.
This year’s rollout certainly supports the stated intent, with Kreindlin culling a panoply of works that cover broad thematic and stylistic ground. She has also, somehow, managed to coax a bunch of foreign artists to make the trip over to this regional war zone for the festival, while teaming up with offshore professionals for creative joint ventures.
One act to capture your heart
One such in the Jaffa Fest program is a rendition of Oscar Wilde’s one-act play Salome which is a co-production with the Royal Haymarket Theatre of London. There are no British actors in the cast but the non-British director, Maxim Didenko, is being brought over to oversee the project which will be staged in English, with Hebrew and Russian surtitles. “He is based in London and Berlin but, of course, he is originally from Russia,” Kreindlin notes, in stating-the-obvious tones.
Unsurprisingly, there has been robust former Soviet-Russian underpinning to the Gesher enterprise since the theater first opened its doors back in 1991. In fact, I caught Kreindlin during a 24-hour furlough in the country in the middle of a tour of former Soviet republics by the Gesher company, which is performing Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina in Estonia, Latvia, and neighboring countries. That, in itself, is pretty astonishing in the current anti-Israel global political climate.
The director general says there are actually rich pickings to be had amidst the international geopolitical turmoil.
“Maxim is from that generation that has left Russia in the past two years because of the war in Ukraine. Right now there are many very talented people working in Europe, and some are coming here.” That, no doubt, is partly down to the sad fact that the émigrées are only too familiar with the fallout of military altercations and thus, presumably, are less fazed by the goings on over here.
The political ante goes up several notches for The Last Word with Didenko, once again, in the director’s chair. This, too, is highly poignant as London-based, Moscow-born actress Alisa Khazanova, presents Russian journalist Anna Narinskaya’s chilling co-production with the Maxim Gorki Theatre Berlin.
The English-language script incorporates the last words of women tried in Russian courts for political crimes, and makes for a powerful theatrical experience.
There is, indeed, no getting away from the Bard’s sage observation, made four centuries ago in As You Like It, that “all the whole world’s a stage.” That follows the notion that art feeds off life and then shunts it back to us, through its prism of choice. And, as there is no getting away from the horrific events of October 7 and their seemingly never-ending aftermath, that spirit infuses the Jaffa Fest fare.
“All the shows we have, reference the current situation in one form or another,” Kreindlin says. “That goes for the political satires [such as WC] and The Last Word. You always end up making those connections. There is nothing new there.”
WC, one of only two Hebrew-language productions on the festival agenda – the other is the How Does A Giraffe Sleep children’s show – performed by Ido Mosseri, should strike several chords among the audience members. Particularly those who cast an increasingly skeptical eye on the political arena and the way political shenanigans are relayed to us via mainstream media.
Politicians, for some years now, have been schooled by image consultants and other advisers who scrutinize opinion polls and constantly check out the groundswell among the rank-and-file electorate, down to their facial and other gestures, and how to tailor the color and style of their attire to different occasions.
Mosseri attempts to pole vault that polished PR-oriented morass by catching world leaders with their pants down, literally. The political satire, captained by Italian director Itzhak Eugenio Di Giorgi, takes an unblinkered look at a veritable rogue’s gallery of media stars including Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Joe Biden, former US president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, and our very own Bibi.
Will we come away from the theater with a firm handle on how the aforementioned’s cerebral cogs and wheels operate? Will the Jaffa Fest offerings make us any the wiser, or fine-tune our viewpoint in any way? And what is the role of art and culture in our everyday lives, especially in dire situations such as the current one?
If I was expecting Kreindlin to come back at me with an emphatic thumbs up for the life-changing impact of her chosen craft I was to be summarily disabused.
“I don’t think art changes anything,” comes the somber observation. She does, however, believe there are gains to be had from ingesting cultural offerings per se.
“Art can heal the soul. It doesn’t change the situation but, in any case, it provides comfort for the soul,” she declares before tempering that hopeful observation with some delightful dark humor. “If you see something [on the stage] which is worse than what you have in reality, that offers just a little comfort,” she chuckles.
She also notes that Gesher Theatre regulars eagerly await Jaffa Fest rollout, and she has a message, or entreaty, for the powers that be with their hands on the municipal and national purse strings.
“I am optimistic. I believe that, in time, everyone will understand that this place, this Jaffa Fest – I talk about this in all the European cities I visit – this place is the most ideal spot for a festival. There is the weather, restaurants, everything is accessible, and there is the port and the beach, and all sorts of small theaters around here. There are the conditions, here, for a festival you can’t find in Vienna, Paris, or Berlin. As soon as someone [in authority] realizes that, and markets it properly, it will really take off.”
Naturally, there is the small matter of the war to address first, but, at least in local theatrical terms, there appear to be some reasons to be cheerful.
For tickets and more information: jaffafest.com/