A new customer contacted me and asked me if I could make a birthday card for her daughter. She was turning 20, loves fashion - especially shoes - and anything pink and sparkly! She also likes unicorns and loves New York and going to Broadway musicals. Mum told me that she's seen Aladdin, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Wicked and The Lion King. Lastly, mum said that her daughter likes to travel. She's been to California, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and Greece. Lucky girl!
I showed the birthday girl holding some black high-heeled shoes. To her left is a colourful unicorn, a little aeroplane and symbols of just some of the places she has visited. To her right is the famous I♥NY logo, which has been used since 1977 to promote tourism in the state of New York. Next to that is a little illustration of the Statue of Liberty and below are the logos of Wicked and Aladin, along with some sparkly music notes.
Mum asked me to add Happy 20th Birthday in English and Hebrew to the card.
Whilst we're talking about theatre, I have been to a couple of productions that I'd like to share with you. "One Night, Markovitch" is based on the book by the Israeli author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. On the eve of World War II, a group of young men set out from pre-state Israel to Europe. Across the sea, a group of Jewish girls whom they have never met await them. The aim: fictitious marriages with which the girls will be able to escape Europe and reach the Jewish homeland, then under British rule. Two of the young men are close friends, but very different from one another. Ze'ev Feinberg, a daring fellow, tall and muscular, sports a moustache and is used to having women fall at his feet. The other, Ya'akov Markovitch, is a nondescript, drab guy without charisma; no woman has ever taken a second look at him. Nevertheless, it is Markovitch who is allotted the prettiest woman, Bella Zeigerman. He falls head over heels in love with her, and when they reach Israel he refuses to give her a divorce. He suffers humiliation, threats, even beatings, his friend abandons him, but he persists in the hope that Bella will love him some day. But it is not to be. Bella struggles for her freedom against the backdrop of war in Europe and Israel's War of Independence, with the plot going to and fro between the little individuals and the great events around them, which have a mythic quality to them.
The play presents the story of Israel in a fresh and humorous way. History and fantasy blend perfectly, while the plot moves from comic to the more dramatic. It was a lively adaptation of Gundar-Goshen's book, which I had read in English, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
As a liaison officer for the army, Ilana, a single mother, supports families who've lost their sons and daughters to the wars. Her son Elad is the only child in the family, which means he will be spared from combat duties and, hopefully, no one will knock on her own door. But when the time comes for her own only son to wear the army uniform, Ilana faces a life-changing dilemma.
"Knock Knock" is the product of Niv Petel's final MA work for Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in London. The one-man play is based on a combination of Petel's experience of growing up in Israel, his own relationship with his mother, articles he read in Israeli newspapers and his imagination. His performance, which used a minimal set and props, switched effortlessly between laughter, tears and surrealistic scenes of miming. It was an immensely moving piece of theatre and, at the end, it was difficult to move, nor breathe, for what felt like a long time. In Niv's own words "It's gut kicking, surprising, funny, and sincere." I will not forget this play for a long time.
* This post has been shared on Little Things Thursday, Creatively Crafty, Thursday Favorite Things, The Weekend Link Up, Friday Favorites Linky Party, All Seasons and Craft Schooling Sunday.
