The Melenki Theater is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary, and today it is opening the international festival "Big Friends of a Small Theater", which will run until July 10 at the theater.
The festival will be attended by, among others, creative artists, immigrants and refugees, along with new and veteran immigrants and artists from around the world.
One of the most intriguing productions in the world premiere will be The Whole New World, a work by British director Konstantin Kaminsky, which deals with the life of refugees inspired by the Russia-Ukraine war and will be shown while traveling by minibus.
This is a production of the British theater troupe 274, and will be performed in English in front of a limited audience of 13 spectators.
The theatrical event, created specifically for the festival, will later go on to have its European premiere in September 2022 in London and Edinburgh.
It is directed by the theater's artistic director, Konstantin Kaminsky, who also plays in it, and actors Eva Mashtler and Ivan Ivshkin participate in it alongside him.
The show revolves around a meeting between three people.
Ivan, a Russian actor who left Russia because of the war, meets a young girl who fled Ukraine, a meeting that ignites a rainbow of emotions in them.
Constantine plays the usher who checks the tickets.
For Ivan the line between life and theater is very blurred, as he himself is a Russian actor who fled his home at the beginning of the war.
"When the war started thousands of people took to the streets to protest, most of them from the worlds of culture and art, but it was difficult to demonstrate because it was forbidden to hold a poster in your hands or say anything, because you will be arrested immediately. We found ways anyway, I was held there for several hours, "Ivan recalls.
"It's a process work, a kind of experiment, because a minibus is not the usual place for theater, but we want to produce something where actors, creators and viewers will collaborate. I myself participate in it, when what interests us is the agenda - to take what is happening in Europe and mediate it. Through the theater, "Constantine explains.
"We thought a minibus was the right place, because there people are very close to each other. You are in motion all the time, and on the other hand you are not the driver and the responsibility is not on you. In fact, the audience is in our hands, and this experience will help people feel what we want them to feel: Experience a variety of emotions,
How will this actually work?
"The minibus itself will function as a shuttle, with everyone in the audience actually riding the minibus, and its goal is to reach the destination and move on from there. Along with the audience there are players, who travel for everything. The relationship between the people was also revealed and through him. "
He said, "There are different ways to do theater today, but I think the main idea that is important and appropriate for our time is to get the audience involved. We are trying to give the Israeli audience a look at the war from a slightly different perspective. I understand that in Israel "They came to Israel, and I think it's important to talk about it because there are those who think it may be a small, local conflict, but it is not true. What is happening is not a struggle between two countries, but the return of fascism to Europe."
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