Myths and war at Katzar Theater Festival

Mythologies, war, and conspiracy theories are the three themes explored at the 26th edition of the Katzar (Short) Theater Festival, which will start this week at the Tzavta Theater in Tel Aviv.

Artistic co-directors Tamar Keenan and Noah Schechter selected 17 plays out of roughly 400 offered. 

Coined and made popular in Hebrew thanks to a long-lasting hit theater adaptation with Meir Margalit in the titular role, ‘Six o’clock after the war’ is a direct quote from the 1921 Czech novel The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek.In the novel, Svejk agrees to meet his good friend Vodicka after the war ends in their usual Prague pub at 6 p.m.

Thanks to Margalit, the show ran for decades and is often revived – in no small part due to Max Brod, who adapted the novel into a play, and Avigdor Hameiri, who translated the German play into Hebrew. Four short theater productions will premiere under this theme. 

The evening will begin with Yochi After the War, in which two lovers are finally able to meet after a decades-long war ends, and continues with HaMatzav (The Situation), about two friends who ignore the war altogether.

The two concluding productions will be Six and One Minute, in which a couple can’t figure out what to do in the initial moments after a ceasefire – finishing with Reasons to Kill God. The last show is about a protagonist who, after the war ends, refuses to celebrate.

“The idea is that the play is set in ancient Sparta, so all the so-called ‘real’ men are either dead or fighting a war,” writer Amir Peter told The Jerusalem Post.

Patroclus is asked to accompany a group of teenagers who follow the Spartan custom of hunting a bear to prove their mettle.

Peter, who taught theater in high school, got the idea for the play when he saw parents being asked to serve as minders on school trips.

Named after Greek classics

Readers well-versed in Greek classics will smile at the name choice. In the Iliad, Patroclus is a very close friend of Achilles. “He is also sort of an actor because he pretends to be Achilles in battle,” Peter told the Post.

“Among this group of teenagers is Patroclus’s son, and he is really embarrassed about his dad being there. The dad, on the other hand, will do a lot to prevent his son [from] hunting this bear because he knows what it means to go to war, and he wants to protect his boy.”

Five years ago Peter created the award-winning one-man show, Oasis. Based on the 1956 book The Desert at Dawn by Noel Favreliere, Oasis depicted the experiences of a combat-duty soldier who refuses to go on killing.

“Anyone who dares to challenge war pays a price. In that sense, nothing [has] changed between 1956 and today,” Peter told the Post. 

He also noted that, unlike Oasis, Sparta is a comedy.

Another funny short piece shown on the same mythological night is The Ad Section, a musical by Ben Sgerski about the afterlife fate of a celebrity who – some would argue – sold his soul for money by making commercial ads.

The natural result of mixing mythologies and war – conspiracy theories – will take to the stage with eight brief productions by Seminar HaKibutzim graduates.

The Katzar Theater Festival will take place from December 5-7. All performances are in Hebrew only. Tzavta Theater. 30 Ibn Gabirol St. Tel Aviv. NIS 85 for each Mikzaron (four short performances shown in one evening under one theme). Call (03) 6950156 to book.