The Spotlight on Israeli Culture Festival continues this month with a poignant play written by one of Israel’s most beloved authors, Savyon Liebrecht. For one day only, on Sunday, March 8, winner of Israel’s Best Play Award (2006), Apples From The Dessert, will be performed as a dramatic reading at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.
Liebrecht’s Apples From The Dessert is a romantic comedy and drama about Orthodox Sephardic Jewish parents from Jerusalem whose only daughter, Rivka, runs away from home to live on a kibbutz with a secular Ashkenazi named Dooby, after she finds out her father’s plan to marry her off in an arranged marriage.
The dramatic reading will feature Aris Athanasopoulos (Seven Years), Sarah Dodd (Dora Award-winner, Marion Bridge), David Eisner (Driving Miss Daisy), Theresa Tova (Bella: The Colour of Love), Vanessa Smyth (Bullet for Adolf), and Avery Saltzman (Therefore Choose Life).
David Eisner is not Artistic Director of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company. He is also the director for this dramatic reading, and will also be playing the role of Rivka’s father Reuven. Eisner took time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about the play and its siginificance.
HM: The play is based on a very popular short-story by Savyon Liebrecht. Has anything changed in its content for this particular production?
DS: I believe in the short story the father is hardly mentioned. But along with a very successful run in Israel, this play had a full production at Theatre J in Washington DC a few years ago and a film version is just coming out now.
HM: The story confronts religion against secularism / modernity head on; while at the same time, it is about love and reconciliation. As director, how do you approach these themes?
DS: Well first of all you cast it well, and we have some wonderful actors including Sheila McCarthy, Aris Athanasopoulos, Sarah Dodd, Vanessa Smyth and Avery Saltzman. Ultimately this story is about family and love, and that is something we can all relate to.
HM: I understand, you’ll also play the role of Reuven – the Orthodox patriarch. How do you prepare for this character?
DS: I look at the back round of the character. In this case a very hard and difficult childhood as an orphan who was not shown much love. I look at the scenes and the conflict within them, and the overall arc of the character. And then I look for things you have inside that serve the character and things you need to add.
HM: In your opinion, what makes this story poignant within Israeli culture and beyond?
DS: In Israel there has almost always been tension between the very religious and the secular, and add to that the added factor of generational differences. I think Israeli audiences were moved by a play that explores and reflects that story, with an ending that has some light and hope and potential middle ground. The tension between tradition and modernity is really universal. This play had a production in the Philippines and they understood and related to the narrative in every way. I think as humans we always will struggle with the past present and future and how we choose to live our lives.
I agree with Eisner. I think as humans, we are constantly looking for ways to remember the past while moving forward. And many of us are certainly looking for ways to live our lives in a more inclusive manner.
