Avid news watchers and those who simply can’t get through the day – or maybe even the hour – without hooking up with the latest, hottest-off-the-press update, may well be the same demographic that is swayed by the impassioned deliveries of our political leaders. But should you take a step to one side and try to view the said lauded speakers from a more oblique angle, you might discern some of the subtext that goes into their oration.
The latter feeds significantly into what we can expect to get from the comedians and thespians who will contribute to the Speeches Against Despair slot in this year’s Israel Festival, which opens for business in Jerusalem on July 16 under the aegis of returning artistic directors Michal Vaknin and Itay Mautner. The program includes a slew of productions in the capital, in addition to shows in the Galilee and Western Negev, through to August 14.
The curtain raiser features an intriguing confluence between world-renowned jazz trumpeter Avishai Cohen and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (JSO). Cohen and the ensemble will showcase the horn player’s latest release on prestigious German record label ECM, which goes by the highly pertinent name of Ashes to Gold. The title suggests adopting an optimistic take on recent events in this part of the world, taking a sober view of the recurring violence and ensuing trauma before looking up to consider a horizon which offers a glimmer or two of hope.
Norman Issa – Food for thought: performing famous speeches
Norman Issa follows that upbeat mindset. The 57-year-old theater, cinema, and TV actor and director, and founder of the Arab-Hebrew Theater in Jaffa, is one of a glittering cast of performers who take keynote speeches by iconic orators and politicians, and the odd piece by literary figures, and give them their very own artistic twist.
The show is the brainchild of popular actor, director, producer, and stand-up comedian Guri Alfi, along with stand-up comic Eli Haviv. Together, they have put together a dream team of fellow stage and screen artists who dip into archival tidbits, bring them up to date, and tailor them to their own singular creative and personal philosophies. See them at the Jerusalem Theatre on August 12.
Issa has gone for one of the most instantly recognizable snippets of visionary literature ever created relating to this part of the world. “I am going to give a speech from Herzl,” he says. “The one with ‘If you will it,’ etc. Herzl was that guy with the long beard and the balcony,” Issa quips, referencing the staple photograph taken of the Zionism founding father leaning on the balustrade of a balcony at the Hotel Les Trois Rois in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, where he was staying during the inaugural Zionist Congress.
The Christian-Arab actor continues in only semi-jocular manner. “I don’t know how many people remember Herzl, but there was someone by that name who talked about the importance of establishing an enlightened democratic Western state that is open to everyone; a country where everyone has equality, and everyone is respected.”
Whether that is, indeed, the case today is open to debate, but getting a reminder of those somewhat utopian words can’t do us any harm. “I am not sure I will have to utter the words ‘If you will it’ because people generally know it by heart. It has become a successful slogan,” Issa chuckles.
The accuracy of that observation very much depends on the definition of “success.” But if Issa was referring to the ubiquity of the phrase across the rank and file, he’s probably spot-on. Mind you, he is not so sure the famous Hungarian-born hirsute chap from Vienna would get such an enthused reception from the current political folk. “I think that if Herzl tried to give the same speech today, they’d throw him out of the Knesset!” Issa exclaims only half-jokingly.
Issa himself has had the odd unwitting scrape with the political hegemony here and says he doesn’t set too much store by our politicians. “We are like a flock just following blindly, like a ship cast out in the open sea just drifting wherever the wind takes us.”
The veteran performer feels that he and his fellow professionals need to step into the breach. “We need to talk from the spiritual heart. We need to present the problem,” he says. “We [artists] don’t solve problems; we can point out where things are not as they should be. We only resolve artistic matters.” That may not sound too practical, particularly in our current circumstances, but Issa believes that he and his cohorts can at least point us in the desired direction.
Does that infer that they will attempt leaving us with food for thought that could help us sort things out ourselves? “Absolutely. That opens things up, opens our eyes, shows us there are other possibilities.” His choice of canonical oration certainly harks back to an era of pioneering spirit when, despite the daunting logistical obstacles, there was a sense of purpose and positivity that seems to be lacking these days.
Issa embraces that, and says he will bring it into his turn at the Jerusalem Theatre. “I take a positive view of life. We shouldn’t be negative – we won’t get anywhere with that.”
I warily put it to Issa that there may be some parallels between actors and politicians. We know, for example, that Hitler consulted an acting coach in order to put some oomph into his public addresses. Sadly, that worked a treat. You only have to look at a minute or two of footage of the Führer’s speech at the 1934 National Socialist Party conference in Nuremberg or his address in Vienna’s Heldenplatz before an estimated 200,000 adoring Austrians to appreciate the power of skilled performance.
And it is, after all, performance. Didn’t the Bard famously compare the world to a stage? “Yes, politicians use body language and gestures and such, but they are not actors,” Issa states. “The context is all-important. What we actors do is not political. We are not trying to channel thoughts – I won’t be doing that in Jerusalem.” Good to hear.
Galit Hoogi – Not food for thought: poetry during war
Galit Hoogi says she also looks for truth rather than trying to manipulate her audience. The 40something scriptwriter, stand-up comedian, and radio presenter – she hosts a morning show on Radio Tel Aviv with Guri Alfi, which may or may not have something to do with her inclusion in the Speeches Against Despair lineup – has gone for very different source material for her part in the show.
Hoogi will delve into the realms of the Fourth Estate. “I went for an article by [Israel Prize laureate poet] Leah Goldberg titled “Al Oto HaNoseh Atzmo” (On The Very Same Topic),” she notes. It seems to be an eminently pertinent choice. “It looks at the role of the poet in times of war. Goldberg wrote it during World War II.”
The article in question saw the light of day in September 1939, just days after the outbreak of the war. Part of Goldberg’s working day and energy at the time was expended on parrying accusations that her principal line of literary work had outlived its street-level usefulness. Her detractors claimed that as the Nazi killing machine unleashed its demonic plan across Europe, it was time to address the brass tacks rather than dallying with what they believed was fanciful literary fare and a luxury in such desperate times.
Hoogi says Goldberg came right back at them, stating her case eloquently and in no uncertain terms. “Basically, her idea was that the poet is not only obliged to write about life and to seize hold of life in times of war – people expect the poets to write about guns and fighting and all that – [but that the] poet has to write about the grass and the sky and the ashes. She said it is the poet’s job to remind us all that life is more important than all the things we do.”
Our own more recent cataclysmic event in the South 21 months ago propelled Hoogi in the direction of Goldberg’s life-affirming ethos. “I got to this article after Oct. 7, and it filled me with hope,” she recalls. “There was such despair and hopelessness in those first terrible days.”
Hoogi, like Issa, clearly has at least one eye permanently trained on the horizon and the promise of better things to come. “When I look back at that time, for me one of the standout things was the efforts to stretch out a hand, to find a place with less despair, a place with hope and light. There was a feeling, even in the center of the country, of wanting to give something to the country but not knowing how to give at all.”
The article helped. “Suddenly, I find this piece by Leah Goldberg where she writes that we have to choose the beauty of the world, and anyone can note the beauty of the world. That gave me solace and the possibility to think of something to do – something good.”
Basically it is, says Hoogi, a where there’s life, there’s hope scenario. “It gave me some sort of direction. Even though I had not yet formed a concrete idea, it gave me the sense that we would soon know which way to turn.” Although that doesn’t appear to have taken on any coherent form as yet, the writer/performer connects strongly with the sentiment of the show’s subtitle: Words that offer strength and hope.
“There are speeches that are powerful, and I do believe they can provide some inspiration,” she posits. That is not the exclusive domain of the people’s elected representatives. “Those moving speeches are not necessarily delivered by political leaders,” she observes.
“Politicians were always liars – some more, some less.” That said, Hoogi has a soft spot for one politician in particular. “I still think of the speeches made by [Winston] Churchill [during WW II]. Yes, that was a different time – but no one ever told me the truth of their own accord.”
I suggest to her that this sounds like she might be doing some drum beating at the Jerusalem Theatre, but she cuts that negative idea off at the pass. “There are going to be all sorts of things going on in the show that relate to the speech that is being presented on stage – Guri and Eli will emcee it and have their input. It may sound heavy, but it is going to be a light, fun evening.”
With the performers drawing on such weighty material, one might expect Hoogi et al to want the audience members to go home with some enlightening stuff to mull over. “God forbid!” she laughs. “If anyone goes home with food for thought, they should come to us and we’ll refund the price of their ticket,” she chuckles. “I hope everyone leaves with a smile on their face.” That’ll do me.
The official opener of the belated Israel Festival spread, which takes in shows and events around the country – in Jerusalem, Kiryat Shmona, Tel Hai, Kfar Blum, Majdal Shams, Ofakim, Kibbutz Urim, and Kibbutz Tze’elim – is a sequel to last year’s inaugural Music People project overseen by producer Haim Shemesh and musical director Yuval Shafrir.
Conceived in the immediate aftermath of Oct. 7, the venture brings together young musicians who employ their craft to process their trauma. This time ‘round, the youngsters will share the stage with some of their renowned seniors, such as Leah Shabat, Amir Lev, Jane Bordeaux, and Daniella Spector, and Ram Halabi from Majdal Shams.
There is more in the way of emotive quality musical fare in the Brothers show, which sees seasoned artist Tuval Haim launch the eponymous album dedicated to his brother Yotam, who was taken hostage on Oct. 7 and was later mistakenly killed by IDF soldiers.
The festival adopted peripatetic creations some years ago, and this year’s slot features The Voice of the World That Only I Hear. It offers patrons, who will be provided with headphones, a sense-heightening trip around the Jerusalem Theatre building as an amusement park turns into a bomb shelter, a siren segues into electronic party music, and a foam cannon shoots off every which way. Her Father’s Daughter, a new play created and performed by actress Neta Shpigelman, spotlights the greatest role of her life to date – her relationship with her father.
Vaknin and Mautner have compiled a multi-stratified entertaining and intriguing program which they hope will entertain us and also soothe some of our emotional sores. “Perhaps it’s still too soon to speak of recovery,” they suggest. “Recovery begins where the war ends, and we are still caught in a vortex that pulls us, time and again, to opposite extremes. Reality stings, splinters, and shatters us. Our hearts are broken, and our eyes are still far from dry.
“But amidst all this, life asks us to infuse it with meaning; to make it worthy of the weight it carries. To observe, respond, and act, rather than standing by.”
For tickets and more information: www.israel-festival.org/