May 25, 2005 Acclaimed Israeli theatre troupe of Russian immigrants to perform in Toronto
They started off as a struggling group of Russian immigrants hoping to do, in Israel, what they did in Moscow: act. The theatre they founded, Gesher, has since become a world-acclaimed bilingual company which makes its Canadian debut in Toronto next week. By Leora Eren Frucht Israel's renowned bilingual Russian and Hebrew theatre company, Gesher, makes its Canadian debut in Toronto next week, with five performances at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts. The Israeli company, established by Russian immigrants in 1991 - and hailed in the London Times as "one of the greatest and most important troupes in the world" - is also one of the world's only bilingual theatre companies, performing with the same cast in Hebrew and Russian alternately. In Toronto the troupe will perform adaptations of Isaac Bashevis Singer's Shosha, in Hebrew, and Isaac Babel's City - Odessa Stories, in Russian - with simultaneous translations of both to English. Gesher means bridge in Hebrew, and the theatre has indeed been a bridge between Russian and Israeli cultures. The company was founded by artistic director Yevgeny Arye, a prize-winning stage and screen director in Moscow, together with a group of his former students and actors, who immigrated to Israel together. They started the theatre with $50,000 (Cdn) in seed money obtained for them by former refusenik and fellow immigrant Natan Sharansky. Their idea was to perform in Russian for the half a million culture-hungry immigrants from the Soviet Union. But Arye soon realized that if they were an Israeli theatre, they'd also have to perform in Hebrew. The company, based in Jaffa, has helped Russian speakers integrate themselves into Israeli society. It has also attracted young Israeli-born actors who now perform in Russian in addition to their mother tongue - Hebrew. And it has influenced other Israeli theatres to move away from a method-acting style and instead follow Gesher's lead in using music in productions. The company has become not only a jewel in the crown of Israeli theatre, but also a world-acclaimed troupe, performing in the US, Europe, Australia and Russia to rave reviews. Most recently, they were invited to perform in Shanghai and in Seoul. "We never dreamed we'd be this successful," says Arye. "I didn't even think I'd be able to work in my profession in Israel." "City-Odessa Stories," which Arye adapted from Babel's story, is an anthology portraying the Jewish life in the city of Odessa before World War II. It's a play Arye waited a long time to do. "When I was a young director starting to work at a well-known theatre in St. Petersburg," he recalls, "I suggested to my teacher that we do a production based on a story by Babel. He looked at me sadly and said: 'That's impossible.' "It was the seventies, and it was forbidden to do a play with a Jewish theme, about Jewish life. "Only after I came to Israel could I finally do that play." Last week, Gesher performed the play in Moscow. The production, featuring a large cast and live orchestra, includes original music and songs dating back to the early 20th century in Odessa, a lively port city where a Jewish cultural centre flourished alongside a colourful Jewish underworld. "Shosha" was also adapted by Arye from a story written by Singer in 1978, the year he won the Nobel Prize in literature. The play unfolds in 1930s Warsaw under the ominous shadow of Hitler's ascent to power, and explores the life of Tsutskik, a young writer, and his childhood love, Shosha. "Shosha is a play about what we have all lost, about a world with only a few days left to exist," says Arye. "When I read the novel for the first time, I felt the characters' heartbeat. The problems they faced are similar to those we face today, the tug of war between Jewish identity and secular culture." "The two plays are very different," notes Gesher's director general Ory Levy," but they have one thing in common: They both deal with a Jewish world that does not exist any more." Performances of "Shosha" will take place on June 1 and 2; and of "City," on June 4 and 5. The Gesher Theatre was invited to Canada by Leslie and Anna Dan in association with the Koffler Centre of the Arts. |