לוהים מחכה בתחנה
God Waits at the Station
Written by Maya Arad
Directed by Shay Pitowsky
God Waits at the Station is a kaleidoscope of fragmented testimonies; one story bursts into another until a weave of broken realities and multiple truths unfold; an infinite cycle of victimization in which the line between victim and victimizer becomes blurry.
Who is the terrorist? A nurse who strayed from the path when her brother was killed by the enemy? An innocent girl who lost her lover when he was set up to marry another woman? A daughter to a father with cancer who was prevented from getting treatment on time due to the political reality?
“She was pregnant”, says the soldier who allowed the suicide bomber to pass through the checkpoint, thus enabling the death of thirty innocent people. “She was not pregnant”, determines the Israeli security agent who was present during the autopsy. Did the taxi driver who drove her become part of a terror attack against his will, or was he a knowing and calculated accomplice? And how do we end the cycle of death if even a pregnant woman is a possible suspect? The characters try to put together the shrapnels of life and death, connecting one piece to the other, but the image that is formed keeps falling apart during the moment of the Boom.
The point of departure of God Waits at the Station is one of the most devastating terror attacks that were performed within Israeli territory by Palestinian terror organizations during the second Intifada (2000-2005). Terror attacks, and mainly suicide bombings, were the central expressions of that violent uprising. Israel responded to these attacks with “targeted killings” of terrorists, which then led to additional attacks, forming an endless cycle of revenge: attack-retaliation-attack. The second Intifada tore apart the Oslo Accords (1993) and led to an escalation which damaged the Israeli and Palestinian economies and took the lives of soldiers and civilians on both sides.
Maya Arad, born in 1976, holds an M.A. in dramaturgy from the University of Amsterdam, where she graduated with distinction. She has been working as a production dramaturg in Europe and Israel, specializing in devised theatre and documentary theatre. As a playwright, her plays so far center on issues of identity, exile, and war. She won the first prize of the international playwriting competition of ITI–UNESCO in 2010 for her play The Diamond Stars, which has also been translated into Norwegian and German.
By Maya Arad
Directed by Shay Pitowsky
With Oshrat Ingedashet, Yuval Shlomovich, Naama Armon, Harel Morad, Shahar Raz, Oded Ehrlich, Naama Armon, Eleanor Flaxman, Lea Gelfenstein, Harel Morad, Shahar Raz, Harel Morad, Oded Ehrlich, Yuval Shlomovich, Eleanor Flaxman, Naama Armon
Dramaturgy by Einat Baranovsky
With the Habima Young Actors Group
Set design Niv Manor
Costumes Natasha Tuchman-Poliak
Music Alberto Schwartz
Movement Sharon Gal
Video Nimrod Zin
Lighting Ziv Volushin
Produced by the Habima- National Theatre of Israel
In the context of the TERRORisms project of the U.T.E
Text published by CulturBooks
freely downloadable in the Hebrew original text & in English and German translation
Premiere on the 13 November 2014
At the Habima – National Theatre of Israel, Tel Aviv
Programme
On stage the stage 27 June 2015 17:00 & 20:30
during the TERRORisms Festival at the Schauspiel Stuttgart, Germany
Performance in Hebrew with English subtitles
Published on 10 June 2015
