BWW Reviews: Israeli Stage Thrives and Celebrates

Make My Heart Flutter

Written by Hanoch Levin, Translated by Karen Alkalay-Gut & Roi Tartakovsky, Directed by Guy Ben-Aharon

Featuring: Remo Airaldi, Nancy E. Carroll, Jeremiah Kissel, Adrianne Krstansky, Omar Robinson

Performance on Sunday, November 2, 2014, by Israeli Stage at Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street, Boston, MA; www.IsraeliStage.com

Israeli Stage is off and running for its fifth season of staged readings to "share the diversity and vitality of Israeli culture through theatre," and commemorated its fourth anniversary on Sunday, November 2nd, hosting the Inaugural Sabra Award Benefit, honoring Ted Cutler and President Lee Pelton of Emerson College for their Excellence in Cultural Bridging and the Arts. Guests were treated to a private performance of Hanoch Levin's Make My Heart Flutter which enjoyed its American premiere before a public audience earlier in the afternoon.

Producing Artistic Director and Founder Guy Ben-Aharon has established an incredible roster of Boston theater talent to make Israeli Stage productions come alive, without benefit of sets, lights, or costumes. Standing on a bare platform with scripts in hand, Remo Airaldi, Nancy E. Carroll, Jeremiah Kissel, Adrianne Krstansky, and Omar Robinson embody Levin's characters and tell the story in thoroughly engaging style. Make My Heart Flutter is a romantic comedy about an everyman persistently holding out for love from a woman who is doing him wrong. Airaldi makes Judge Lamka both sympathetic and exasperating, drawing more eye rolls than you can count from his good friend Pshoniak (Kissel), who has his own troubles with his chronically-fatigued wife So-So (the always excellent and deadpan Carroll). As the object of Lamka's tireless affection, Krstansky (Lalalala) shows all of her mixed emotions, and Robinson has fun morphing from one foreign suitor to another.

Readings take place at the Goethe-Institut (170 Beacon Street) in Boston's Back Bay, but Israeli Stage will have its first full theatrical production, presented in partnership with ArtsEmerson: The World on Stage, to take place April 9-25, 2015 in the Jackie Liebergott Black Box at the Emerson/Paramount Center (559 Washington Street) in Boston's theatre district. Ben-Aharon will direct Kissel, Will Lyman, and Karen MacDonald in the North American premiere of Ulysses on Bottles by Gilad Evron. Winner of Best Israeli Play in 2012, Ulysses was performed in a staged reading by the same trio during the company's second season (2012).

Photo credit: Alena Kuzub (Remo Airaldi, Jeremiah Kissel)