Review: DAM DAM DA DAM at MIKRO THEATRE

"The stories must me credible - The reality doesn't."

This sentence that opens the play "Dam Dam Da Dam" pretty much sums up what the playwright, Roey Maliach-Reshef, had in mind when he realized that all the popular theatrical genres have been over-used and decided to create a new one by mixing them all together in one play.

This new play tells the story of Na'ama (Noa Zankel), a young and not so mentally healthy woman who lives with her parents (Miri Gorelik and Beni Shif) in a deserted home in the woods.
Na'ama is in love with the famous Israeli actor Niro Levy (played by Niro Levy himself) and her only desire is to make him hers. Her parents manage to abduct Niro and force him to marry their daughter at gun (and sometimes drill) point. But you can rest assure that Niro wouldn't let all that happen without a fight, even during the wedding ceremony conducted by the Rabbi (Yosef Albalek).

Dam Dam Da Dam is certainly a very adventurous play which is the result of Roey Maliach-Reshef's brave approach towards the world of theatre and playwriting. Roey is known as a dedicated and loved teacher and for his many unique initiatives and projects in the Israeli fringe industry. His plays are also more fringe related as his ambition is to create unique pieces of theatre rather than more mainstream plays that might suit larger kinds of audiences.

Having that in mind, this new experimental play doesn't come as a surprise for those who are familiar with Roey's work.
This horror comedy, as described by him, combines genres such as: comedy, tragedy, horror, nonsense, fable... you name it.
But what comes out of the oven from this unique recipe doesn't have its own newly discovered texture but more of a multi-layer cake that contains all sorts of flavors one next to the other.
In some cases during the play those different flavors go easily down the throat together, with a big help from the interesting and original work by the directror, Efim Rinenberg.
But nonetheless, when looking at this play as a whole, it seems as if something is missing in order for that experiment to be a complete triumph.
But maybe such a perfect result cannot be achieved, and maybe even the creators themselves weren't looking for a perfect result but rather for a display of a unique way to create theatre, and preferably with the best results possible under all these conditions. And this play certainly succeeds in achieving that.

The entire cast have done a tremendous job and all the characters seemed very much authentic and believable, which is a very difficult task, especially in a multi-genre play such as this.

One more aspect that's worth mentioning: The great video art made by Evgeny Leshchenko which surely added much to the entire theatrical experience and maybe it should've been used even more throughout the show.

There's also some use of vocal narration (by the director himself) from off the stage during some parts of the show, an element I thought to be very unnecessary and sometimes even ruined some scenes for me.

In conclusion, maybe you won't understand how to feel towards this play, maybe you'd feel confused and in an unknown territory, but who said everything has always got to be the way we all know already?
Let you minds open up a bit and come to see this unique theatrical experience with many moments of interest and delight.

Photo Credit: Yevgeny Leshchenko, Ilan Hazan.
For tickets and further information, click here.

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