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temporary Israeli playwrights and latest production, Midnight
subjects of Jewish interest. We are Prayer.
The play deals with an identity
always trying to break new
ground, and even when we put on crisis suffered by Berke, a young
a classic, it will be given a modern man of Sephardic origins who
studied at an Ashkenazi Orthodox
interpretation."
The theater also has kept yeshiva only to discover the deep-
abreast of modern developments rooted discrimination that exists
by staging three of the best Amer- toward the Sephardim.
In later life, trying to bridge the
ican plays: Broken Glass by Arthur
Miller, Angels in America by Tony gulf between the two, the protag-
Kushner and David Mamet's onist builds up a Sephardi politi-
cal party supported by right-wing
Oleanna.
Yet controversy reigns through- Orthodox Ashkenazim, and we see
out. On its most recent visit to him becoming a cabinet minister
New York, the company present- while still in his 20s. Now he must
ed Gorodish by Israeli playwright make pragmatic decisions which
Hillel Mittelpunkt. The play cen- conflict with his avowedly religious
ters on the story of Brig. Gen. beliefs. Shades of the Shas Party,
Shmuel "Gorodish" Gonen, Israeli maybe? Well, possibly, as there
hero of the Six-Day War. In are, despite all Cameri denials,
Gorodish, Mittelpunkt claims — striking similarities between
with the full force of an Oliver Berke and Arye Deri, leader of the
Stone conspiracy theory — that Shas Party, currently third largest
Israel's lack of preparedness dur- in the Knesset, who is facing a tri-
ing the Yom Kippur War was part al on corruption charges.
Written by Ramy Danon and
of a master strategy carried out
with the blessing of Golda Meir Amnon Levy, a former religious
and Moshe Dayan (then prime affairs correspondent for the
minister and minister of defense, Hadashot newspaper, Midnight
respectively). The plan was to fa- Prayer picks up where their first
cilitate future negotiations with play, Sheindale, left off. Sheindale
the Arabs, even though it meant gave a glimpse into the life of the
that soldiers were sacrificed on the Chasidim in Mea Shearim, their
front line, with Gonen himself be- rules, their views on love and mar-
riage and the power struggles of
ing used as a scapegoat.
If the left thought Gorodish was their rabbis.
Perhaps most controversial so
right-wing propaganda, then those
on the other side of the political far has been Pollard — The Pa-
fence had plenty to dislike about triot, a docu-drama about the Jew-
Yigal Even-Or's Fleischer, ish American volunteer spy who
Cameri's other production staged gave the Israelis vital secrets and
in New York. This concentrated was sentenced to life imprison-
on the conflict between secular and ment. This is one play the Israeli
Orthodox Jews in Israel, dealing government certainly wished nev-
with a delicate Israeli problem: the er had been written — let alone
movement of large numbers of performed — as it blew the lid on
Haredim (right-wing, generally how Pollard was deserted by his
anti-Zionist Jews) into neighbor- Israeli handlers in the Washing-
hoods that were predominantly ton embassy after he was arrest-
secular and the impact of the en- ed by the FBI.
After seeing the play, more than
suing changes on the local com-
100,000 play goers signed a peti-
munity.
The plot centers on two elder- tion requesting Pollard be re-
ly Holocaust survivors whose leased.
If this all seems a bit on the
butcher shop goes bankrupt when
it is boycotted, and they them- "heavy" side, keep in mind that the
selves are ostracized by the reli- Cameri does, at times, tackle
gious community "for not being lighter themes. These include
Jewish enough." When Fleischer Agape, described as "an adult's
opened in Israel, religions leaders fairy tale," which is a new play by
wanted it censored. There was top Israeli playwright Hanoch
even a debate in the Knesset since Levinadult; the Stephen Sond-
the Cameri receives public fund- heim musical A Funny Thing,
ing. The National Religious Party Happened on the Way to the Fo-
asked the attorney general to rum• the Moliere classic The Miser,
launch a criminal investigation be- an updated adaptation of Gogol's
cause Fleischer supposedly "de- The Inspector General, set in a cor-
rupt Southern Israeli town; and
ified the Jewish religion."
Finally, the theater was asked satirist and columnist Yonatan
to stop performing the play — but Geffen's Cyprus, poi Laying a span
refused point-blank As playwright of 20 years — from the chuppah
Even-Or sees it, "The problem to the divorce courts. ❑
starts when you start mixing reli-
gion with politics."
If the religious didn't think
Last week's In Focus article,
much of Fleischer, imagine the
"Tube Dreams," was written by
double hernias all around follow-
Alice Burdick Schweiger.
ing the premiere of the Cameri's
DETROIT'S LIMITED ENGAGEMENT BEGINS WEDNESDAY,
OCTOBER 16th AT THE MASONIC TEMPLE THEATRE.
(810) 645-6666
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Tickets also available at the Masonic and Fisher Theatre box offices
and all Ticketmaster Outlets.
GROUPS (20 or more): Call Amy (313) 871-1132
Chrysler Series at MASONIC TEMPLE THEATRE, DETROIT
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