A Romantic
Comedy/Mystery
by Tom
Stoppard
Stand-Up Midrash
March 19-
April 13
"Tom
Stoppard's
richest,
most
ravishing
comedy"
New York
Times
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SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
W
as the Book of Esther re-
ally a warning about the
dangers of the Holocaust?
Israeli actress and writer
Gabriella Lev thinks so and
wants to convince others through
her one-woman theater piece,
Write Me Down.
Lev, a founder of the Theatre
Company Jerusalem, brings her
work to Ann Arbor 8:30 p.m. Sat-
urday, March 29, in a program
sponsored by the University of
Michigan Hillel.
these different characters
through the one character is be-
cause of this new form that we -
developed, which I call stand-up
Midrash.
"The characters speak to the
audience, and what we are say- •
ing is that when there is an im-
balance of power in the world,
there is the danger of Holocaust.
"That is what Esther wrote
down 2,000 years before the at-
tempted genocide of the people of
Israel, which happened just over
Oakland University's
Professional Theatre
29203 Northwestern. Hwy. • Southfield
Need to get
away from it
all with a
great vacation?
Israeli actress Gabi Lev brings her one-woman
theater piece to Ann Arbor.
(810) 356-5454
Before
Gabi Lev: Exploring the femalt aspect of how the cosmos should be.
After
Check out the
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DIAICTO4t1)
in our
Classified Section
"I play various levels of Es-
ther," the feminist performer ex-
plained.
"I represent Queen Esther, and
at the same time, rm an actress
playing an immigrant. Also, rm
telling my own story as the child
of Holocaust survivors. It's real-
ly Esther through the ages.
'The reason that I can play all
50 years ago in Germany. The
story must be written down so
that it is passed on to genera-
tions, and that's why the perfor-
mance is called Write Me Down."
Born in France, raised in Aus-
tralia and employed as an actress
in England before moving to Is-
rael, Lev helped found the The-
atre Company Jerusalem in 1973
to find the woman's voice in Jew-
ish traditions.
The company has developed
eight theater pieces about
women, basing its works on re-
search that includes Talmud and
Midrash studies.
`There are very strong women
in our tradition, but their voices
are less heard than the voices of
men," said Lev, whose trip to
America also will include a pre-
sentation in New York and a two-
day residency at Harvard, where
she will be performing Love Sto-
ries From the Talmud.
"This is because, I think,
women for very many years were
prohibited from studying the Tal-
mud and the Midrash and were
limited to studies considered suit-
able for women.
"Esther is one of the only books
in the history of the literature of
the world, not just in Judaism,
which was written by a woman.
'We believe that if there is such
a book, there's something in par-
ticular that [Esther] wants to tell
us about the female aspect of how
the cosmos should be, and this is
what my performance is explor-
ing."
Lev's husband, Natan, who
works as a director of a comput-
er firm, composed the music for
one of the Theatre Company
Jerusalem's productions.
"I think my sons (Asher, 20;
Barak, 16; Nadav, 15) have a spe-
cial appreciation for women be-
cause of what I do," Lev said.
"But in fact, it's not just what
you say, it's what you do that af-
fects children, and I think they
do look at the world differently
because of their parents."
Lev will be scheduling a num-
ber of performances in the Unit-
ed States through the end of the
century. Her programs are being
coordinated by the National
Foundation for Jewish Culture.
"My theatrical goals are to help
develop a distinctive theater tra-
dition in Israel reflective of Is-
rael's geographical and cultural
position," she said. "I see myself
as a pioneer along with a lot of
other people who establish a lot
of wonderful things in Israel." 1-
e
Write Me Down will be per-
formed at 8:30 p.m. Saturday,
March 29, at the Mandell L.
Berman Center of the Univer-
sity of Michigan Hillel, 1429 Hill
St., Ann Arbor. For information,
call (313) 769-0500.