Between Jerusalem and Athens ― Israeli Theatre and the Classical Tradition

How does a theatrical tradition emerge in the fields of dramatic writing and artistic performance? How can a culture in which theatre played no part in the past create a theatrical tradition in the modern world? How do political and social conditions affect the encounter between cultures, and what role do they play in creating a theatre with a distinctive identity? This volume attempts to answer these and other questions in the first in-depth study of the reception of ancient Greek drama in Israeli theatre over the last 70 years. Exploring how engagement with classical culture has shaped the evolution of Israel's theatrical identity, it draws on both dramatic and aesthetic issues - from mise en scene to 'post dramatic' performance - and offers ground-breaking analysis of a wide range of translations and adaptations of Greek drama, as well as new writing inspired by Greek antiquity. The detailed discussion of how the performances of these works were created and staged at key points in the development of Israeli culture not only sheds new light on the reception of ancient Greek drama in an important theatrical and cultural context, but also offers a new and illuminating perspective on artistic responses to the fateful political, social, and cultural events in Israel's recent history.

Nurit Yaari, Professor of Theatre Studies in the Department of Theatre Arts, The David and Yolanda Katz Faculty of the Arts, Tel Aviv University

Nurit Yaari is Professor of Theatre Studies in the Department of Theatre Arts within the David and Yolanda Katz Faculty of the Arts at Tel Aviv University. She previously held a Visiting Professorship at INALCO (Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales) in Paris. She has published widely in Hebrew, English, and French on contemporary French theatre, Israeli theatre, and on the reception of Greek tragedy in Israeli theatre and modern dance, including the monograph Le theatre de Hanokh Levin: Ensemble a l'ombre des canons (Editions Theatrales, 2008), and the edited collection Inter-Art Journey: Exploring the Common Grounds of the Arts. Studies in Honor of Eli Rozik (Sussex Academic, 2015). Professor Yaari is also currently serving as an artistic consultant for the Khan Theatre of Jerusalem.