Le Menteur Volontaire will present Hanoch Levin’s “Les Souffrances de Job” directed by Laurent Brethome, translated by Jacqueline Carnaud and Laurence Sendrowicz, as a guest production at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv from May 2 – 4, 2011.
Hanoch Levin (1943 – 1999) occupies a mythic place in Israeli theatre, especially for those who saw Levin direct Levin. Inevitably, for those who are Levin’s most ardent admirers, there is a conflict between the desire to keep his work alive on the stage, and the inevitable comparisons aroused by each new production. In this sense, productions of Levin’s work that come from abroad can create a break and a bridge to the future. Detached from the history of Israeli theatre, and the local mire of cultural associations, foreign directors are free to claim Levin and find their own path through the text.
The French director Brethome does this with passion, intensity and a sense of play. The trailer for the production reveals a very physical, sensual, colorful approach to the text:
The young director works with a company of 40 actors, and has been devoted to the work of Hanoch Levin since his own years as a theatre student. Brethome has previously directed Levin’s Krum, and as a teacher in theatre schools in France, Levin is required reading in the classroom. Brethome says that Levin’s plays “Transcend time, the issues he deals with…it could have been written just yesterday.”
Levin’s play Job’s Passion was first produced at the Cameri Theatre in 1981. Brethome’s production, has aroused the interest of audiences and critics, including Pierre Assouline, author of the recent Vies de Job (Lives of Job) published by Les Editions Gallimard. The play will be performed in French, and is an hour and forty minutes long, without an intermission.
Les Souffrances de Job – May 2, 3, & 4 at 20:30, The Cameri Theatre, 19 Shaul Hamelech Street, Tel Aviv. Tickets: 03-6060900.
