An Israeli Love Story is a play translated from the Hebrew play Sippur Ahava Eretz-Yisraeli. It premiered in 2008 and still runs in repertory at Tel Aviv's Givatayim Theater and Cameri Theater [1].
The play was written and directed by Pnina Gary[2] and is based on her own true life story during the period between 1942 through 1948.
The one-woman show is performed by Adi Bielski, who won the Israeli "Best Actress" Award in Fringe Theater in 2009 for this multi-character role.
On March 28, 2011, a special evening marked the celebrating of 250 shows. Attending that evening, were the Israeli Minister of Culture, Mrs Limor Livnat, and the recent winner of the Israeli "Sapir Prize for Literature" 2011, the writer Yoram Kaniuk.
The play was performed in English at "The Leeds Jewish International Performing Arts Festival" in 2009, at London's "New End Theatre" on May 18 to June 6, 2010[3], and at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa[4][5][6] as well as Montreal[7], Toronto[8] and Washington DC[9][10] in September 2011.
Contents |
The play was translated from the Hebrew play Sippur Ahava Eretz-Israeli, which literally means "An Eretz-Israeli Love Story". "Eretz" means "land" or "country", and it's probably the origin of the English word "Earth". "Eretz-Israel" ("Land of Israel") is the ancient and traditional name used by the Jewish people for their homeland, while the rest of the world referred to it as "Palestine". The name "Palestine" was given to the country after Bar-Kokhva's revolt in 135 AD, by the Roman Emperor Hadrian. In an attempt to erase any memory of Judea, he wiped the name off the map and replaced it with "Syria Palaestina" (after the Philistines), supplanting the earlier "Judaea". The term "Eretz-Israel" has been used ever since the loss of sovereignty, therefore, the name of the play implies that the story takes place in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
The story begins in the summer of 1942. Margalit, a young and vibrant girl, along with her two friends from Moshav Nahalal, is on her way to the youth seminar in Jerusalem. On the bus she meets Ami, a student at "Kaduri" Agricultural High School. After Ami gets off the bus, Margalit cannot stop thinking about him.
Six months later, Margalit meets Ami again, this time at her Moshav, Nahalal. He’s a soldier in the Palmach now (the Palmach was the British-founded Brigade, which later spearheaded the unofficial Jewish army of pre-state Israel). His Jeep has broken down and Margalit invites him to sleep over at her house. He leaves the next morning.
A year has passed and Margalit is sent by the Nahalal’s culture committee to the Youth Instructors Seminar in Kibbutz Yagur. Outside the dining room, she suddenly spots Ami, with another girl. She fails to avoid them. Ami tells Margalit he has been stationed there by the Palmach and introduces his girlfriend. Margalit seems to be out of luck.
In 1945 World War II ends with mixed emotions. Along with the joy of victory, there’s also the realization of the catastrophe, the Holocaust. The Tzfonis’ relatives in Paris were taken to Auschwitz, and no sign of life is received from the extended family in Russia.
The policy of the White Paper resulted in Holocaust survivors fleeing from Europe, being treated as Illegal immigrants. The increasing flood of “Aliyah” generates a need for more schools and kindergartens. So, at 18, Margalit goes to the Seminar for Kindergarten teachers in Tel-Aviv. She resides in a shack with two roommates, and works for a family, both as a nanny, and a housecleaner.
One day, on the bus to the seminar, Margalit encounters Ami. Again. He tells her, that he has separated from the girl from Yagur, and co founded a new Kibbutz, “Beit Keshet” in the Lower Galilee. Margalit uses the opportunity and invites him to Yafa Gustin’s performance at a club in Giv’atayim. When she alights the bus, immediately after Ami told her he was busy and couldn’t join her, his friend Motke asks her out. When she declines the offer, he informs her that Ami has a new girlfriend, a new immigrant from Hungary.
Margalit cries her heart out to her roommate, Mikhal, who excitedly mentions that her cousin is a member of Beit Keshet. She comes up with a scheme. She will visit her cousin during the Passover holiday and bring Margalit with, for company.
At Beit Keshet, Margalit is happy to hear from Mikhal’s cousin, that there are vacant beds in his room, and that his roommate is some guy called Ami Ben-Avraham.
In a Kibbutz, guests take part in the work, and Margalit is sent to work in the kitchen. On her way to the showers, she bumps into Ami and decides to try one last time. She asks him to drive her, on his motorcycle, to a Passover party in Nahalal. Ami agrees. After the party, he tells her that he is finished with his Hungarian immigrant girlfriend, and kisses her for the first time.
In Beit Keshet, On the nearby hill under the Carob tree, Ami shows Margalit the surrounding view. Mount Tavor, the mountains of Gil’ad and Mount Hermon. He points at the houses of the local Bedouin tribe and tells her that their leader, Sheikh Abu-Nimer, is a friend of his father and always declares that he is Ami’s brother. Under that tree, Ami asks Margalit to marry him. The wedding date is set for Purim.
In the mean time, the UN resolution for the partition of Palestine on November 29, 1947 marks the beginning of a civil war between the Arabs and the Jews of Palestine, as the following morning the Arabs attack after a night of Jewish celebrations. The Jews are compelled to travel in armored vehicles, as the roads are mostly under Arab control.
It's now 1948 and Margalit has difficulty adapting to the communal life of the Kibbutz, where everything is shared among the members. But Ami makes it very clear. The Kibbutz reflects everything he believes in and he is never going to leave it. Nevertheless, he asks and receives a “family room”, just for them.
As the preparations for the wedding are in progress in Nahalal, back in Beit Keshet, a friend of Ami tells him that the Arabs’ cows are grazing in Beit Keshet's fields, up on the hill near the Carob tree. Ami gathers a few of his friends to drive the cows out of the Kibbutz’s fields. In Nahalal, when Margalit comes back from work at the kindergarten, she is told that Beit Keshet is under attack. After driving in an armored car, through road barriers, in the pouring rain, she reaches Beit Keshet, only to learn that the cows were just bait. They were sent there by Sheikh Abu-Nimer to lure the Kibbutz’s men into an ambush. Seven of Beit-Keshets men were gunned down. It was supposed to be Ami and Margalit's wedding day.
Radio "newscasts" are heard throughout the play, which provide important historical background to the plot:
Pnina Gary was born in 1927, in Nahalal, Israel, as Pnina Dromi, daughter of Yosef Kotlar and Tzipora Ostrowski. Her parents made “Aliyah” from the Ukraine in 1919. Gary went to Nahalal’s Agricultural High School, and later attended the teachers’ seminar to become a kindergarten teacher.
In September 1948, trying to recover from the outcome of the Beit Keshet battle, she volunteered to participate in an expedition of teachers to the DP camps around Munich. She was sent to help set up kindergartens in the camps and work with Jewish children who survived the Holocaust. In Munich she met her husband, Robert Gary, a Jewish-American journalist, who reported from the camps. They married in late 1949 and had two daughters, Dorit and Meirav.
After their wedding, Pnina & Bob moved to Israel, where she wrote a weekly column for Davar newspaper for a period of two years.
From 1953 through 1957 Gary studied acting in New-York, in the private schools of Herbert Berghof and Lee Strasberg, and took lessons in the Actors Studio.
After their return to Israel, in 1959 Gary co founded the “Zavit” Theater, which was active for nine years. During those years, she acted in various theater shows produced by other theaters in Tel Aviv.
In 1968 Gary joined “HaBima” as an actress, until 1980. From 1981 through 1990 she was the artistic director of the “Orna Porat” Theater.
Gary also adapted Israeli novels to theater. The novels are by the most renowned Israeli novelists: Amos Oz, Sami Michael, Shulamit Lapid and Tzruya Shalev.
Pnina Gary's movie appearances[11] as an actress include: "Dreams"[12] (1969), "Death Has No Friends"[13] (1970), "Ariana"[14] (1971) and the BBC's "A Dinner of Herbs"[15][16] (1988).
In 2006 she received an award for her life’s work from both the Israeli Ministry of Culture & Education and ASSITEJ.