Soaring high on the changing winds of time, The Beer Sheva production of Les Cerfs-Volants, written and directed by Ido Ricklin, is a moving coming of age story set in the 30s and 40s of the past century. Based on the novel by Romain Gary, the play is epic in scale, spanning 15 years and a world war, contemplating questions of good and evil; yet its perspective is always intimate and human. The kite, its colors flying free, always reaching for the sky, is the central motif of the play, at once light and lively, and yet also symbolizing the innermost secret depths of the human spirit.
Ludo – Ludovick Fleuri (Tom Hagi), is an orphan who lives in a village in Normandy with his pacifist uncle Ambroise, famous for his kites. He turns to his uncle with all his questions about life, and while the answers are sometimes enigmatic, they are always imbued with love. Ludo’s story begins with love, when he meets Lila (Avigail Harari) while picking strawberries. He is eleven, she is twelve. He is a French country boy, she is the daughter of Polish aristocracy, vacationing in their summer home. With her blonde locks and sophisticated air, she is the stuff dreams are made of. It is inevitable that Ludo will chase, and Lila will elude his grasp – this is the central thread running through the play, yet its path will twist and turn in unexpected ways.
Tom Hagi gives a sensitive portrayal of Ludo, taking him from adolescence to maturity with a convincing sense of innocence and awakening. Avigail Harari shimmers with sensuality and vivacity as the lovely Lila, then takes the character on her long and tortuous journey with integrity. It’s a difficult task to take a character from school-age to late twenties, through the extreme life-changing experiences of war. Hagi and Harari are both convincing and poignant in these roles.
The entire ensemble cast gives an excellent performance, bringing the village and its visitors (wanted or not) to vivid life. Shiri Golan brings a welcome spark of humor to the play with her portrayal of Lila’s mother, a former star whose looks are her calling card, elegantly luxuriating in her lingerie and cultivating her lovers, while she keeps her husband entranced. It’s all the more hilarious later in the play when Golan appears in her second role, that of Mme. Julie, the crude and canny owner of a brothel, who tries to curb her habit of cursing in Yiddish – not so wise when France is under German occupation.
The threat of war grows in the first part of the play and eventually erupts, changing lives forever. Each person confronts the dilemmas of war in his or her own way, often revealing unexpected aspects of their personality and beliefs. The pacifist uncle, in Nir Menkl’s understated, stalwart performance, finds unique and creative ways to live out his beliefs. As does Chef Marcellin Duprat (Muli Shulman), with bravado and panache, practically saving France with his kitchen. The chef is a delight and his exuberant advocacy of French cuisine is one of the pleasures of this play. In practical terms, the restaurant fulfills more than one function, yet at the same time, humor aside, one might argue for the significance of preserving culture, even (especially) in times of crisis.
Les Cerfs-volants was Romain Gary’s last novel, published shortly before his suicide in 1980. Born in 1914 as Roman Kacew in Vilnius (then in Poland), he and his mother moved to France where he attended school, joined the French Air Force, and after the occupation, escaped to England to join General de Gaulle’s Free French Army. His post-war adventures are no less thrilling, he became a diplomat and successful novelist, receiving the Prix Goncourt in 1956 for his novel Les Racines du ciel. He later wrote under the pseudonym Émile Ajar, and under this name, received the Prix Goncourt for his novel La vie devant soie in 1975, becoming the only person to receive the Goncourt twice, under two names.
The question of appearances and the relationship between what a person appears to be, how one imagines that person to be, who the person is, and perhaps, even more significant – who the person has the potential to become, is a theme explored through several different characters in the play, with thought-provoking resonance. Memory is the essence of the play, expressed in different aspects of the plot and characters. Ludo is an ordinary young man in almost every way, except for his deep love and loyalty to Lila, and his exceptional memory. He literally remembers everything he sees and hears. Memories of Lila offer a kind of comfort when she is away, and the clarity of his memories keep his love alive, as beautifully expressed in the song The Way You Look Tonight, which serves as the play’s refrain. Memories can become painful when the present is so much darker than the past. What is crucial, is the way that Ludo chooses to use his ability to remember – to help others, to do good. Ultimately, it is the audience, we the viewers, who are charged to remember: to remember those who retained a sense of humanity imbued with goodness, and chose to perpetuate the good.
Les Cerfs-Volants
Written and directed by Ido Ricklin, based on the novel Les Cerfs-volants by Romain Gary.
Set design: Eitan Levi; Costume design: Svetlana Breger; Lighting: Avi-Yona Bueno (Bambi); Music: Dori Parnes; Choreography: Tula Damari; Polish coach: Alexander Horowicz; Cast: Ron Bitterman, Udi Ben-David, Yaron Brovinsky, Shiri Golan, Tom Graziani, Ala Dakka, Avigail Harari, Tom Hagi, Nir Menkl, Sharon Nae, Muli Shulman.
