Tags: Hebrew theatre | Israel studies | Theatre studies
In 1990 a production of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead was staged in Tel Aviv. The venue was a small auditorium in the basement of Habima National Theatre, the director was Moscow-born Yevgeny Aryeh, and the performance language was Russian. The event marked the debut of the Gesher (‘Bridge’) Theatre, founded by Aryeh with other Russian immigrants. It therefore needs to be placed within the wider context of Russian immigration to Israel, which brought nearly one million of post-Soviet Jews to the small Middle Eastern country after 1989. Nonetheless, a comparison arose naturally with the journey of Habima six decades earlier. Established in Moscow in 1917 as a studio of Stanislavskij’s MKhAT, Habima was a collective of Jewish actors from Russia and Congress Poland who aimed at performing in Hebrew. In 1926 it embarked on a triumphant world tour and five years later it permanently settled in Tel Aviv. Differences between the two experiences lie mainly in their language choices. Since its earliest days, Habima opted exclusively for Hebrew despite the lack of a Hebrew-speaking audience. Its goal was to establish a Jewish theatre in Hebrew, thus contributing to the national-linguistic renaissance. Conversely, the Gesher started out with Russian-language shows in a Hebrew-speaking country. Its goal seemed to be the preservation of Russian identity in Israel. Nevertheless, it went beyond the expectations of an immigrant theatre, starting out with a British absurdist play aimed at enthusiasts who were familiar with Hamlet and could appreciate metatheatre. Just one year later, the Gesher actors began acting in Hebrew as well, starting the bilingual tradition of the company. Despite the differences, both Habima and the Gesher offered their contribution to the Hebrew stage, thus showing a pattern in the injection of talents from Russia in transitional periods of Israeli history. It is well-known that professional Hebrew-language theatre was born in Moscow with Habima and that the birth of the Hebrew theatre was tightly intertwined with the Zionist enterprise. Even today, parodies of old-fashioned acting are characterised by a heavy Russian accent, proving that the connection between Russia and the origins of theatre is a shared perception in Israel. It should not be surprising that again from Russia came a group of actors who, against all odds, established a new theatre in Israel.