More Greek tragedies are now in Israeli theaters

Two other productions of Antigone are currently being presented, one at Beit Lessin and the other at the Museum of Natural History. 

The first is a French adaptation of the Greek tragedy written by Jean Anouilh, and the second is a German retelling by Bertolt Brecht.

First performed in Nazi-occupied Paris, Anouilh placed Antigone against a highly sophisticated Creon (Sasson Gabai) in a morally compromised world. Directed by Yair Sherman, this visually stunning production has the Greek princess (Lihi Kornowski) digging in the soil to bury her sibling and tearing out the stage boards while Creon explains to her that “people these days are afraid to stick their hands in the mud.”

Creon informs her that she is dying for nothing because the body she buried is changed beyond recognition. It might not even be Polynices, after all. Still, she picks up a toy shovel her brother used to play with on the beach – on which she wrote his name for him – and goes out to do what she feels is right.

First performed after WWII, the Brecht work presents Creon as a Nazi-type dictator and Polynices as an army deserter hung for not defending the Fatherland during its time of need.

Directed by Ira Avneri, this performance also has an insider’s wink. Retired theater critic Michael Handelzalts plays the choir – the voice of society – in this production.

Tragedy or comedy?

Few could imagine a Greek tragedy as being funny. Egyptian playwright Ali Salim did just that with The Oedipus Comedy. By switching the location from the Greek city of Thebes, which had seven gates, to the Egyptian one, which had one hundred gates, Salim was able to deal with the very loaded theme of hero worship and the cult of the leader.

“Why should monsters pose riddles?” his Tiresias points out.

“Have you heard of a snake who surprised someone and asked him to solve a riddle?”

The solution the seer offers is a bold one. Rather than trusting a leader who himself is the source of the pollution and the reason a plague murders the city citizens, all those who live in the city can confront the monster – together.

After all, one of them ought to be able to solve the riddle of the Sphinx, and even if no one will, all the people working together could defeat the monster. Let Hades wait for new subjects a tad longer.

Antigone by Bertolt Brecht will be performed on Sunday, December 8, at 8 p.m. and the following day at 8:30 p.m. Last performances. The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, 12 Klausner St., Tel Aviv NIS 90 per ticket. Book online via www.iravneri.com/antigone.

Antigone by Jean Anouilh will be shown at Beit Lessin on Sunday, November 24, at 8 p.m. NIS 300 per ticket. 101 Dizengoff St., Tel Aviv. Call 1-800-44-111 to book. All performances are in Hebrew.

‘The Oedipus Comedy: You Are the One Who Killed the Monster’ by Ali Salim was performed in 1970 in Cairo. The 1998 Hebrew translation is by Gabriel Rosenbaum.

English quotes from The Odyssey are from the A.T. Murray 1919 translation. Oedipus Tyrannus quotes are from the 1970 translation by Luci Berkowitz and Theodore F. Brunner.