Jaffa Theater celebrates 25 years with a revival of ‘Longing’

The Jaffa Theater is celebrating 25 years of activity with a lineup of productions. It includes a revival of the complex, multilingual play Longing (Tuesday, June 25), a special evening devoted to its co-founder, dance critic, and playwright Gaby Aldor for receiving a lifetime achievement award (Thursday, June 27), and for a new production titled When the Ground Shook, in which Jewish and Arab playwrights express their respective feelings following the October 7 Hamas attack and the war that followed.

Co-created by Adib Jahschan, Yigal Ezrati, and Aldor in 1998, Jaffa Theater is the only place in the country, if not the world, where patrons can pick up Hebrew translations of Arabic-language plays. Its commitment to high artistic standards and respectful dialogue is fierce and idealistic, and it often goes against the grain.

“Our main goal is to present Arab culture,” Ezrati told The Jerusalem Post, “to show Hamas does not own the Arabic language. We are the only theater in the country that does this.”

He’s right. Demand among Arab citizens of Israel for high-level theater is low. Most Hebrew speakers show little interest in Arab culture.

Palestinian theater-goers are more likely to watch plays like Qirqash by Samih al-Qasim, which deals with his experience in Israeli prison, or Ariha ‘am sifr (Jericho Year Zero) by the late François Abou Salem, in which the protagonist self-destructs in a Sufi dance rather than accept Israeli control.

Salem founded the Palestinian National Theater (El-Hakawati, the Storyteller) in Jerusalem. He was a unique and brilliant cultural activist who directed plays, operas, and films. In the 1980s, his play Mahjub Mahjub was performed at Tzavta Theater to wide acclaim.

Jews not banned from going to performances

Jews are not banned from attending performances at El-Hakawati, but it does not provide Hebrew subtitles, and it seems unlikely that even the most fluent Arab-speaking Jew would feel wanted.

“There is an open question discussed within the Arab audience about whether Jews should be invited to shows in Arabic or not,” Ezrati told the Post.

“One point of view says this: ‘For 70 years, we fought to be treated as equals and failed, so why bother?’” Ezrati said. Amir Nizar Zuabi, the founder of the Haifa ShiberHur Theater Company and director of I Am Yusuf and This Is My Brother, “decided he will perform in Arabic and not bother to invite [Hebrew-speaking] Jews. Other people have different attitudes.”

Noting this strong need to maintain boundaries is typical of the Israeli reality, but not the American one. Aldor shared how, during her childhood, she enjoyed going over the line.

“I used to visit Rosh Hanikra and put out one leg, exclaim, ‘I’m in Lebanon!’ and then quickly retrieve it,” she told the Post.

“The Arab audience,” Ezrati concluded, “will not come to watch a show in Hebrew. If they see a show, they want to see it in their own language.”

THANKS TO former Tel Aviv mayor Roni Milo, who generously offered them use of the defunct Demiani family soap factory, Jaffa Theater bridges the painful gap between Arabs and Jews.

Oum Kalthoum - starring Galit Giat as the Egyptian diva adored by late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef – is a high-quality production performed in Hebrew with Arabic songs. “Jews from Arab-speaking countries often felt they had to hide their oud under the bed when they came here,” Aldor told the Post. This production is an attempt to heal these wounds.

Morocco extended an invitation for the show to be performed there – a historic first for Israeli theater.

A revival of Ulysses on Bottles by the late Gilad Evron, a Hebrew play about an Israeli teacher of literature who builds a raft to smuggle Russian novels to Gaza, is currently offered (Monday, July 29).

When the late theater critic Shosh Avigail saw Longing 22 years ago, she lauded the artistic effort to say something about the crumbling society around us and its many points of view.

Audience members sit on revolving chairs and are offered five stages to watch the actors, showing Russian-speaking immigrants building a new life here, an elderly Arab man who dreams of rebuilding a mosque, a Jewish woman who longs to be buried in her beloved Cairo, and much more.

The production includes original music and a culinary aspect: The performers cook various foods, all associated with their cultures of origin, and share them with the viewers.

In 2002, Avigail published a review concluding that the performance was worthwhile but needed time. “The different voices do not join into any choir, and no stand is taken,” she warned. “Is there an Israeli choir? Or are we doomed to split and fight...to boast about multiculturalism and pluralism when, in reality, we are sucked into a dark swamp, a foggy blend of identities?”

Hopefully, this revival will reveal the answer.

‘Longing’ will be offered on Tuesday, June 25, 8:30 p.m. NIS 110 per ticket. ‘When the Ground Rumbles’ will be offered on Saturday, June 29, 9 p.m. NIS 90 per ticket. An Evening Honoring Gaby Aldor will be held on Thursday, June 27, 7:30 p.m.; preregistration is required. Jaffa Theater, 10 Mifratz Shlomo Promenade, Old Jaffa. Call (03) 518-5563 to book.