Nissan Nattiv Acting Studio Jerusalem will present Pavel Kohout’s play Poor Murderer, translated by Polina Kanevsky, adapted and directed by Misha Luria.
Set in a hospital for “nervous disorders” where Kerzhentsev, a famous actor is being treated after a breakdown during a performance of Hamlet. The treatment is as unusual as the disorder: a troupe of actors are called in to recreate the circumstances of the incident, according to a play written by Kerzhentsev, very much à la Hamlet. The question remains: did he do the deed?
Novelist, poet and playwright Kohout (b. 1928) was a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia who became one of the exponents of the Prague Spring and a dissident who was banned from working in official theatres. He formed the Living-Room Theatre Company with other dissident theatre workers, their underground production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth provided the inspiration for Tom Stoppard’s play Doog’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth. Kohout was exiled to Austria in the 1970s. Poor Murderer is based on the short story Mysl (Thought) written by Leonid Andreyev, and was produced on Broadway in 1976.
Performance dates and venues:
Nissan Nativ Studio, Jerusalem – 17 Elazar Hamodai Street, Jerusalem, 02-6733414.
January 5th at 20:30; January 6th at 20 :30; January 7th at 20:30; January 8th at 20:30; January 9th at 20:30.
Lola Hall, Tzavta Theatre, 30 Ibn Gvirol Street, Tel Aviv, 03-6950156/7.
January 11th at 12:00.
Link to facebook event page
