Oded Liphshitz has opened up the space to create a poetic parcourse in Perpetuum Mobile, currently showing at Tel Aviv University. Written and directed by Liphshitz, an MFA student and instructor in the Theatre Arts Department, the play is performed by students in the department. The play will run through June 14th (see performance dates below) and if the words “student show” immediately make your interest flag, think again. Perpetuum Mobile is strange, exciting, meticulously produced and the actors work wonderfully with demanding material to create a performance that is entertaining and intriguing.
Liphshitz is a prolific young playwright and director whose plays have won critical acclaim. The Light Turns Upon Me won first prize at the 2010 Beit Lessin Open Stage and 2010 Heidelberg theatre market, Efshar La’asot Im Zeh Mashehu at Tzav Kria #5 at Tzavta in 2010, Tzotzi won first prize at SmallBama # 7 in 2008, The Girl Who is Actually a Wheelbarrow directed by Edna Shavit, and several others have been produced in Israel and abroad.
Liphshitz fearlessly contends with abstraction and emotion, his theatrical acrobatics balance poetic allusive text with movement to create an experience that pushes beyond the traditional borders of narrative, character and plot. In Perpetuum Mobile Liphshitz makes use of the entire space of the auditorium – walls, aisles, and even those spaces usually hidden from view, in this case a back room and an outdoor courtyard, to present a week and a day in the routine of the world created onstage by 12 characters in almost constant motion. Tender and funny, opaque, bizarre and sometimes cruel, they reveal themselves to the audience in layers of time, action and dialogues taking place simultaneously in different places in the auditorium with live music as an integral element of the performance. The back room and courtyard are on view via camera, each scene projected on the adjacent wall.
It sounds chaotic – and it is, but it is a very artistically controlled chaos. In a transformation of the black box, everything is white, even the floors, aisles and stairs are covered in white tape. Visually, this pulls the entire space together, creating a sense of unity in which it is clear that there are no borders to the stage and the action is everywhere at once. At one point, I noticed that I was looking at a scene to my right in the aisle, while the people seated on my right were looking all the way over to the left front corner of the stage. There is a multitude of choices, and one’s attention is drawn to different places, making the audience an active partner in the creation of the narrative.
While it may sound very abstract, chasing fragments of story through the myriad motions of a dozen characters, the strength of the play is in its willingness to appeal to the emotions and intellect as one. Liphshitz is a gifted writer; the lyric quality of his texts is a pleasure to encounter. His strength as a playwright and director lies in his ability to conceive of the play as a whole in which the interaction of all the different elements available – movement, text, performance, set design, lighting, costumes and music work together to create the experience of theatre.
This production was made possible by a grant from the Production Fund in memory of Hadas Dror z”l, killed in the terror attack at Dizengof Center in Purim of 1995.
See Perpetuum Mobile while you can in Auditorium 140, Gilman Building, Tel Aviv University Campus, enter through the Dan Buchner Gate #8 on Haim Levanon Street (other entrances to the campus may be closed at night). Performances will take place: Thursday, June 9th at 20:00, Friday, June 10th at 12:30, Saturday, June 11th at 21:00, Sunday, June 12th at 20:00, Tuesday, June 14th at 20:00 and Thursday, June 16th at 20:00. Tickets may be reserved in advance at: 03-6407480.
Perpetuum Mobile written and directed by Oded Liphshitz
Set & costume design: Daniela Mor
Lighting design: Jeffrey Lesein
Movement: Mor Lidor
Original music: Einav Har-Anan Cohen
Dramaturgy: Adi Savran
Producer: Lior Gibor
Assistant Director: Ilona Goral, Danit Levi
Actors: Gilad Adler, Avi Ilinsky, Naama Arleky, Zohar Ginsburg, Cheli Gerby, Sarit Or Greenberg, Anat Zauberman, Nadav Yehudai, Rona Navon, Yarden Rozansky, Yaki Springer, Hadas Sher.
*Midnight East would like to note that all names have been translated according to my best guess from program notes in Hebrew. You were all wonderful and I would like to give you full credit correctly spelled – so if I have managed to mangle your name, please write to me at info@midnighteast.com and I will gladly make corrections.
I find the review a bit too focused on the director. The actors played a large role in creating their own characters and did a great job. And it’s Yaki Springer. I think he was the star of the show.
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