Gesher Theater’s production of Samson, with Shlomi Bertonov as the long-haired biblical hero and Roni Einav as Delilah, offers a highly actualized adaptation of the 1924 same-titled Russian novel by Ze’ev Jabotinsky. The outstanding 2007 Hebrew translation by Peter Kriksunov already enabled one award-winning stage adaptation, the 2017 play Samson by Efim Rinenberg. Gesher now offers a very different vision of the biblical myth.
Ori Yaniv plays Makbannai Ben-Shuni, the wise-fool to the Judge of Israel (Bertonov); he also attempts to bridge the gap between our times and those of the ancient world.
“The tribes of Israel squabble,” he informed the audience, “and the Philistines are in Gaza, just like today.”
The October 7 Hamas attack and the cost of waging war are invoked often.
“I was the one laying on a filthy mattress in Gaza,” says Delilah in a clear reference to the sexual violence used against Israeli women held in captivity. When asked what his goal is, Samson replied: “Total victory,” the same slogan used by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When Samson tells Semadar (Yuval Scharf) he attained victory by returning a stolen herd taken from his people, the tribe of Dan, she admonishes him.
A real victory, she says, is one that leaves the other party – the thieves – with a little something, too, as these people will “remain your neighbors.”
Samson, relying on his God-given strength, is unable to understand this.
The audience is often presented with shorthand versions of the biblical and literary themes the novel deals with. This is not always ideal as, sometimes, rather than saying something meaningful about Samson, we are given a factoid, or joke, that offers us a false feeling of understanding.
In the novel, Samson explains to the shocked Makbannai that in Zorah, among his people, he is awake, and is a tight-lipped, non-drinking holy man due to the vow his mother had made before he was born. In Philistia, however, he is dreaming, and is a drinking, jovial, and riddle-loving man.
“There are no laws to dreams,” Samson tells him.
Jabotinsky designed him as a tragic figure, who attempts to reshape the political culture of the people of Israel by instructing them to “pick up iron, select a king, learn to laugh.”
Instead, this production put down this concept and picked up two others: first, that the bible is interesting because it depicts our own moment (and so, nothing ever really changes in this Israeli life) – not because the scripture is mysterious, or different from our own mentality, or hard to piece together.
The second is that the audience will not be able to appreciate deep artistic examinations, and so, must be given easy ways to relate to what is on stage. This means Tom Jones’ Delilah is played before intermission and Makbannai shares the trite truth that “everyone,” Philistines and Israelites, “has his own side to the story.”
The result is a mostly captivating and enjoyable performance which does, at points, a disservice to its source material yet still has many other good things going for it.
Yuval Yanai as Achtur
YUVAL YANAI is fantastic in the role of Achtur. His talent is palatable when he touches his own bald head, which makes us sense his envy of Samson’s full head of hair, and when he waves farewell to Semadar (Yuval Scharf) before she marries his best friend.
It is at this moment we know he is in love with her, and that this will not end well.
Under director Noam Shmuel, the physical similarities between Yanai and Bertonov were emphasized; the two men, who play the two respective champions of their tribes, are very much alike.
In some moments, Achtur offers to murder for Samson, serving as his hand, and drink wine for Samson, serving as his mouth.
When he and his people are rejected by Samson, this love becomes hate.
Einav is a great Delilah. The scene when Einav runs around during the banquet table, poisoning the minds of respective guests by offering biased solutions to Samson’s riddle, is one of the finest moments in this production.
Samson intended to boast about his own feat, killing the lion and then learning that bees made honey in its carcass. It is this blindness, this focus on how special he is, that marked his tragic life course. A gifted actor, Bertonov excels in the lead role, offering us a roaring giant who has a child-like aspect of naivety and is crushed by an uncaring world.
“Samson” will be shown at Gesher Theater on Monday, October 14, 7:30 p.m. and run until Thursday, November 14. Hebrew with Russian and Hebrew subtitles. Two hours and 15 minutes, one intermission. NIS 150 to 300 per ticket. 9 Yerushalaim Blvd. Tel Aviv. Call (03) 515-7000 ext 2 to book.
