Habima National Theatre plays Bucharest

Recently, the Habima National Theater toured Bucharest, Romania, performing the play “Talk about the place of finding,” by the late Nava Semel, directed by Aya Keinan, starring Israeli actress Ruby Port-Shoval and Tatiana Canalis Olier, a native of Romania in the lead roles.

The play is based on Semel’s latest book, “Fanny and Gabriel,” which is based on the life of Semel’s grandparents, Gabriel and Fanny Hertzig. Nava Semel was an acclaimed Israeli author, playwright, screenwriter and translator and received the Prime Minister’s Prize for Hebrew Literary Works in 1996. She died in 2017.

The Habima performance received accolades, and at the conclusion of the play, Romania’s Minister of Culture and the festival director were presented on stage alongside Ambassador David Saranga, who said, “Culture is the most effective way to convey a message. One good presentation, which makes a person think, is enough to explain what thousands of words or interviews cannot do. Returning to the regular routine after two difficult years has allowed us in recent months to bring the best of Israeli culture in theater, dance and cinema.”

Habima also participated in the International Theater Festival in the city of Sibiu. Next year the play will be staged in Bucharest as a Romanian production. The Habima tour was made possible through the cooperation of the Israeli Embassy in Bucharest, the Cultural Relations Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Romanian Ministry of Culture, and the Lauder Reut School in Bucharest.