The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv Brings RETURN TO HAIFA to Theater J, 1/15-1/30

The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv, the largest and most renowned theater company in Israel, brings their production of RETURN TO HAIFA, based on Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani's beloved novella of the same name and adapted by Israeli playwright Boaz Gaon, to Theater J this January. RETURN TO HAIFA tells the heart-rending saga of Sa'id and Saffiyeh, who return to the home they fled during the conflict preceding Israel's War of Independence, and learn the fate of the baby they left behind. Now a young soldier in the IDF, Dov meets his birth parents while cleaving to the Holocaust survivors who raised him. This production, performed in Hebrew and Arabic with English sur-titles, anchors the fourth installment of Theater J's Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival, this year focusing on Portraits of Home. The festival also includes nine additional one-night events of readings and performances from and about the Middle East. For further information, go to theaterj.org and click on "Middle East Festival."

RETURN TO HAIFA runs January 15-30, 2011 at Theater J in the Washington DCJCC's Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater. Performances on Saturday, January 15 at 8:00 and Sunday, January 16 at 3:00 are $30 Previews. Press night is Sunday, January 16 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available for $30-$60 at boxofficetickets.com or (800) 494-TIXS. Limited tickets for patrons 35 and under are $15 for all
performances!

When it premiered in Tel Aviv in 2008, Return to Haifa was hailed as "Truly magnificent...amusing and moving, human and majestic" (Haaretz). This explosive and deeply-felt drama, adapted from the landmark Palestinian novella by one of Israel's leading young playwrights, follows two couples as they encounter each other in a struggle over child and homeland. After two decades, Sa'id and Saffiyeh return to their old house to find that it has become the home of Jewish immigrants. The couple, Miriam and Ephraim, have lost a son of their own in the Holocaust, and have tried to salvage their broken lives by moving into the house and raising the abandoned child that was found inside. Helen Kaye, of The Jerusalem Post calls the story a "parable which asks: To whom does this country belong: to the people who have lived in it for generations, or those who see in it their ancestral home which they have reclaimed to build anew?"

The works of author Ghassan Kanafani are translated into seventeen languages and published in more than twenty different countries. Before his premature death in 1972, Kanafani had already become known as one of the best-known Palestinian writers of fiction and prose. In Arab countries, his work, including Men in the Sun and All That's Left to You, has been adapted for radio plays and theatrical performances, and two of his novels were adapted and turned into feature films. According to The Jerusalem Post, educational authorities teach Kanafani's works in Israeli high schools to help students better understand "how Israeli-Arab authors express their cultural and national identity."

Playwright Boaz Gaon saw the story as an opportunity to address the issues facing his country without dehumanizing anyone involved. Remarking on his adaptation, he states, "This play is pro-human." Upon first reading the novella, Gaon recalls "Simply put, I was shattered. What do you do, asked Kanafani, when's there nothing to be done? What do you say, when nothing's to be said? What happens when two people

are violently thrown against each other and a reality produces itself which is so insoluble, so devastating, so plainly cruel and murderous-that the words themselves become powerless? ...And yet still, they speak. Sa'id to Miriam, Miriam to Saffiyeh... with an urgency and desperation that only the tragic twins of history-the Jews of Israel and the Palestinians of Palestine-can fully
understand. No one can better understand Miriam than Saffiyeh, as a bereaved mother. No one knows what Saffiyeh has sacrificed better than Miriam; not even her husband. The women talk because they cannot help talking, their need is too great and their pain so immense and the basic human needs of living, and loving, mothering and fathering so desperate to flourish, that they do what humans do when they bother to believe their hearts instead of their political leaders-which is to find themselves in the lives of others."

This emphasis on an even-handed look at the complex conflicts has characterized Gaon's career. Founder of the Rubinger Forum, an "idea factory" for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he is also the author of the book Where America Ends: My Life as an Israeli in New York charting Israel's love-hate relationship with America. Several of Gaon's other plays include Dress Rehearsal (1998) awarded Best Play at the Akko Israeli fringe festival, The Israeli Family (2004) nominated for Best
Entertainment Show, Branja (2008) winner of the 2008 festival for new Israeli plays, and Traitor (2010) an adaptation of Ibsen's Enemy of the People. His current work-in-progress, Argentina is being workshopped in a reading directed by Sinai Peter as part of Theater J's Voices from a Changing Middle East Festival.

Director Sinai Peter shares Gaon's spirit of openness to discourse, noting that although, "it seems impossible that these people would sit down to have a dialogue," times have changed enough that after a great deal of soul-searching, "perhaps they could become one family." RETURN TO HAIFA is not Peter's first experience directing politically sensitive Israeli drama. At Theater J, Peter directed Hillel Mitelpunkt's The Accident (2009) and Motti Lerner's Pangs of the Messiah (2007). Peter also treads on familiar territory in the play's setting, having spent a large part of his career living and working in Haifa. He served as the Artistic Director of the Haifa Municipal Theatre and also as the Artistic Director of the Festival of Children's Theatre in Haifa.

By uniting the Cameri Theatre's actors, director, and company members with the production team at Theater J, RETURN TO HAIFA brings about a unique collaboration between Washington, DC and Israeli theater artists. The Cameri Theatre is the largest of Israel's six public theatres, producing approximately 1,700 performances every year, both in Israel and around the world (the theatre is based in Tel Aviv, but has branches in London and New York). In 2007, they came to the DC metro area's Signature Theatre with their award-winning production of Hamlet, a highlight of that year's "Shakespeare in Washington" Festival. That same year, the Cameri was awarded the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Special Contribution to Society and the State of Israel. In their decision, the judges recognized the Cameri as an "involved, responsive, socially-oriented theatre that is attentive to the reality in which we live and responds to our current needs." Indeed, the theatre's mission statement emphasizes the "social value and political issues that are at the center of the Israeli public's life." This mission is closely aligned with that of Theater J, an institution devoted to "the pressing moral and political issues of our time." With Return to Haifa, both theaters exemplify these missions of social responsibility and political exploration.

Playing the returning Palestinian couple Sa'id and Saffiyeh are actors Suheil Haddad and Raida Adon. Suheil Haddad is a founding member of the Jewish Arab Theater in Jaffa. In addition to acting extensively at the Khan Theatre in Jerusalem, he is an award-winning filmmaker, and has received accolades for his films in Italy, Spain, and the Middle East. Raida Adon has an extensive background in both Theatre and Visual Art. She has previously worked with the Cameri Theatre performing in The Eyes That See, Witches, Hebron and Plonter. Adon has also performed for The Arab Children's Theater in Z'Beni: Snow White, Cinderella and the Red Shoes. In 2005, she was nominated for the "Most Promising Actress Prize" for Israel Theatre. The roles of the Jewish Holocaust survivors, Miriam and Ephraim, will be played by Rozina Kambos and Nisim Zohar. One of Israel's most
acclaimed actresses, Rozina Kambos is a recipient of the Israel Theatre Prize, the Kol Yisrael Prize, the Klatchkin Prize, The Teatronetto Festival Outstanding Actress Award, and recently, the Best Supporting Actress Award for her role in the film The Human Resources Manager. She has worked with the Cameri Theatre since 1997, appearing in The Sulphur Spring, Krum, Dona Rosita the Spinster, Accordians, Two in One, The Italian Straw Hat, and Caviar and Lentils, among many others. Playing Ephraim, Dov's adoptive father who must struggle to share his son is Nisim Zohar. Zohar trained in the United States under Uta Hagen for three years. He also studied cinema at New York University. After returning to Israel, he appeared at the Cameri Theatre in King Henry IV, Ubu Roi, Coriolanus, and Julius Caesar. Recent Cameri productions include Netanya, A Flea in Her Ear, and Fiddler on the Roof. Also an active performer at the famous Beit Lessin Theatre, he appeared there in The Odd Couple, Fog, and Born Yesterday. Playing Dov, the conflicted son who must reconcile his tumultuous past with his unknown future, is Erez Kahana. Kahana was trained at the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts and London Drama Centre and Actors Centre. He has worked
with the Cargo Dance Ensemble all over Europe, and currently hosts the popular Israeli radio program The Essence of Life. Rounding out the ensemble is Misha Teplitzki, as the clerk, Artzi. Teplitzki trained in St. Petersburg, and has worked in film and television throughout Germany and Israel.

Frieda Shoham, who designed the set for the original production of Return to Haifa, has modified the set to be custom-made for the Goldman Theater stage. The design also includes lights and projections designed by Klyph Stanford, who returns to Theater J after working as the projection consultant for last season's production of Mikveh. Stanford has worked throughout DC, and received a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Outstanding Set Design in a Resident Production in 2010.

The 2011 Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival: Portraits of Home is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and a grant from The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington to support Israel Programming through the Arts.

This engagement of The Cameri Theatre is a DC Performing Arts Presenters Initiative project, made possible through funding by the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

The Cameri Theatre's residency is also supported by the Fisher Family Foundation Visiting Artist Endowment Fund.

 

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