The Middle East is such a volatile territory. No clear borders. No clear delimitation between politics and private lives. Between leadership and folly. Between fiction and reality. We had a good example last night with the viewing of the fringe theater play ‘Toys’ by Noam Gil at the Tmuna Theater in Tel Aviv.
Synopsis. Koby, an overqualified PhD intellectual who cannot find work suited to his aspirations and qualifications is hired by an odd couple who seems to play a strange reality game. He and Nurit, the other employee, a single mother, must play the roles of personal assistants to … the Prime Minister of Israel and his wife. The couple seems to take very seriously their game – coalition and opposition, intrigues and illegal affairs, non-confidence votes and wars. What starts like a game of characters that the hired people accept to play for a living soon turns into something else, kind of a virtual world were reality and fantasy mix, were imaginary intrigues and real passions are difficult to set apart.
source https://www.tmu-na.org.il/
The text is very smart and funny at many moments, and is well helped by the team of actors (Mayan Bloom, Yael Leventhal, Ehud Knoller, Moran Rosenblat) directed by Yigal Sachs. There is no direct explanation of the name of the play – ‘Toys’. Does the author mean that the characters play a pathetic, sometimes cruel game, in which each of them turns into the toy of the other? Does he aim higher, to the political games in which we all become toys serving the personal interests, fantasies and mental problems of the leaders?
source https://www.tmu-na.org.il/
Speeches and slogans of the characters are so familiar to the Israeli audiences, as the heroes become more and more involved in the virtual political game played on stage. The words are extracted from the reality of today, but may have been actual 50 years ago and may still be relevant 50 years from now. We walked out of the performance last night, and this morning we woke up with the name of the new game being played in the area – it’s called ‘Northern Shield’. By now, as in many other cases we know that it started, but not much more. The play may be over, the big performance goes on.
