She is happy to get vaccinated, worried about the heated public discourse, angry at the neglect of culture ("Five years of decision-makers discrediting us. Chekhov? It should be encouraged") and proud of the diet she did in Corona • Tiki Dayan appears in a new satire series on "Hot" The grandchildren and the audience
"I didn't show up in the backyards of houses, but I was zoomed in a few times."
Dayan, this week
Photography:
Disposal pins
The small public garden near Tiki Dayan's home in central Tel Aviv is filled with a group of jubilant children on a hot January morning.
The days are tightened Tuesday, and Dayan is domesticated on a bench in the open air, keeping a safe distance of two meters from the bustling bustle.
In two hours she is due to approach receiving the second dose of vaccine against Corona, the re-entry ticket to the post-epidemic sane world.
She does not hide her joy, which is mixed with the hope that the vaccine will be the first step back to the days when "gathering" was not considered a rude word.
"I'm aware of a fairly large group of people, unfortunately, who think they should not be vaccinated," she explains.
"It's legitimate, I respect that, but it depends on what age you are. When you're 72, like me, it's different than being 20 or 40.
"I'm scared of the corona. I also have things of age, like high blood pressure, a long history of smoking until 12 years ago and old age disease of the eyes, AMD, accumulation of fluid under the retina. The cure for that is injections into the eyes. It sounds awful, and it Not so pleasant, but it does not hurt very much.
"And I have matters with the knees, and I do not see well, and heard a little ... So I have everything (laughs), and I want to protect myself as much as I can.
You do not know how relieved I was 21 days ago, when I was given the first dose of vaccine.
Suddenly my anxiety level dropped a bit. "
Some people are afraid of the second vaccine and its effects.
" I go to the vaccine wholeheartedly.
I know it will be a bit like this and like that, like after every shot, but you learn while moving, and I don't mind learning it together with everyone. "
What is the first thing you will do when you are already protected?
"Mostly hugs to my amazing grandchildren. Hugs and kisses."
Dayan rolls up the sleeve of her shirt and reveals with a wide smile her arm, on which the names of her five grandchildren - Sheila, Elia, Abigail, Noam and Mickey - the children of her two daughters, Roni (45) and Gili (43), are tattooed.
"Until now, when the grandchildren came to me, when it was possible, it was not to run and hug like before. And it drives the mind crazy, especially the grandmothers. So I'm waiting for that. We are a very embracing and close family, doing every Friday or Saturday together. Roni and her family live in the orchard Hannah, and Gili and her family in Tel Aviv, next to me, so we do half and half, see you there or here. "
"I'm alone, a widow for 18 years, living in a lovely house I'm in love with. Every morning when I get up I talk to him and say 'hello home' (laughs). Look around how everything is green. And it's close to children, theater, writer, bakery '".
Aside from talking to the house, don't you feel like talking to a spouse?
Haven't you thought about episode two?
"No. Absolutely not. Never. This is me. I was married for 31 years to a very, very special and rare person, Yair Achi-Ilan, who worked in computers and died at the age of 56. The end was very difficult, because he was very ill, and for a long time.
" My life, because of the profession, is very tumultuous and noisy, full of doing and meeting with people, and when I come home I have a position of beating.
I lie and stare, and it probably balances me out.
I love quiet.
I have always loved. "
* * *
For decades, Dayan has been one of the most esteemed actresses in Israel, a comedian by grace, who already starred when she served in the Armored Corps in the late 1960s, alongside Avi Toledano, the late Dori Ben Zeev and Talia Shapira. In theater performances, TV series and movies,
it can now be seen in the new satirical sketch series "Transparent" (Sundays-Mondays, 20:30, on HOT3, HOT VOD and NEXT TV) created by Eli Ben David, Adar Merom and Omri Amit ("We are on the map", "Puppet of the night"). The series, which also stars Yuval Samu, Guri Alfi, Eli Yitzpan and Gila Almagor, presents "transparent" figures in Israeli society, people who are in the background and do not receive real treatment. Trying to present Israeli society with a wild comedic look in its dark corners.Each
episode of the series ends with a performance of an Israeli musical classic, with new arrangements by Daniel Salomon.Dayan stands out in a sensitive cover she presents for the song "And Again Alone", Ehud Manor's Hebrew translation of Gilbert O'Sullivan. She first performed the melancholy song in her youth in the 1970s, and the closing of the circle now inspires considerable emotional power in it. The
name of the series, it seems, is
It pained him to the point that Dayan and her colleagues had reached the corona crisis, when the cultural figures suddenly became transparent and non-essential, with no horizon or hope of returning to stage activity any time soon.
"I have an explanation for this," she exclaims as I remind her of the word transparent.
"Do you know why this is so? Because for five years they have done terrible public relations for culture. When you respect culture, you teach the people that there is something to love and respect here. It makes them want to see an exhibition in a museum, go to theater shows, listen to music at the Hall of Culture.
" For five years we have been discredited by those who make decisions and say all the harsh sayings, 'What is culture?
Chekhov?
Who needs it? '
so yes!
Need to read Chekhov!
Encourage it!
Not the other way around, throwing us to the dogs. "The
fact that a culture minister called the artists" jumps under "has permeated the public so much that in times of crisis he did not mobilize for you?
" It permeated some of the public, and government officials.
The whole government thinks so.
This is what they were informed, that we are nothing, that culture is not important at all.
Did very bad public relations for the culture, and it permeated the people, who were affected by it.
They were told we were leftists, living in fancy, sour houses.
Why so?
“Compare how culture is treated abroad and see the difference.
I'm not talking about money and budgets, not at all.
I'm just talking about the reference. "
How much are you hurt by the crisis on a personal level?
" Everyone deals with the situation differently, and it has a lot to do with character.
Luckily, I'm a very optimistic person, I know it's going to be okay.
Will take time, but will be fine.
It cannot be that everything will go down the drain.
It is not possible for the whole cultural world to be destroyed.
Our greatest writers were called 'Outlaws of Israel', the most revered people were constantly slapped in the face by the people who make decisions about us.
"So it's hard, but I pass the time. I love my life, the quiet, never get bored, never complain. I'm a guy! Even in the theater I like to travel to perform in faraway places. When young guys would say, 'Come on, finish. Going "- I was very angry. Sorry, what is 'finishing going'? We arrived in Dimona, Yeruham, Ofakim? There we give the maximum, not in the Cameri or in Beit Lessin.
" I do not understand the complaints.
You do not want?
Difficult for you?
Go home.
There are dozens of good ones at least like you.
Here they do.
Then someone comes along and says that the periphery is important to her.
The periphery is important to me!
Since I was born, since I started performing in the military band all over the country. "
Are you involved in social media? What do you think about the heated public discourse that is spreading today?
" I am not on any social network, I do not have Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
I do not want it, do not consume it, and I do not care that people will respond and that I will answer.
So I am less exposed to talkbacks and only hear that the phenomenon is growing and becoming monstrous.
"This discourse comes from somewhere. This is how we talk in the Knesset, this is how we talk on TV, this is how we shout when we are interviewed and interviewed. I cannot hear it and I do not know where we have come from. It bothers me very much, preoccupies me and worries me." .
* * *
For 46 years she played at the Cameri Theater, with small outings to Beit Lessin over the years, until in 2019 she officially moved to the rival theater, for the lead role in Beit Lessin's flagship hit, "Warm Family", written by Anat Gov and directed by the late Roni Pinkovich. , In which Dayan played a "Polish mother" who hosts her family for the Passover Seder, ran successfully all over the country - until the corona arrived.
"We ran 200 plays, a large lager that was interrupted by Ivo.
We had a lot of invited shows, and everything was canceled.
I have more plans for things in the theater, I'm not worried.
I'm talking to Tzipi (Pines, CEO of Beit Lessin; MK), and we are debating a few plays.
There is currently talk of Savyon Liebrecht's 'Apples from the Desert', which I really like and have a desire to play with. "
Did you have financial anxiety because of the corona?
" Sure.
At first I had expenses without income, until I received from the state tax refunds based on the previous year.
Thank God, I worked well in 2019, at levels I have never worked like this in my life.
29 filming days of the series 'Stockholm', 24-22 performances of 'Warm Family' a month, guest roles in the series 'That's How It Is' and 'Allows Agunot'.
The salaries were nice, thank God, and accordingly I received the tax refunds.
"In general, of course I got into financial anxieties. Terrible anxieties. Thank God, I'm fine, the situation is fine, but now I already want to keep working. I'm dying to be relevant, to see if I'm still relevant."
Do you have a fear that you may not be?
"Luckily not, because I'm constantly doing things that are happening on TV right now. We've already booked a second season of 'Transparent' and there will be a third season for 'Stockholm,' which Noa Yadlin is supposed to write (the entire series is based on a book written by Yadlin in 2016; MK) .
Today I received photos taken in the German production of 'Stockholm'.
They bought the series and made their own local version of it. "
Dayan pulls out the cell phone and excitedly shows the German doubles of Laura Rivlin, Debbie Glickman, Sasson Gabay and her. Even the German version of Gidi Gov, who played her body, is there.
To her character in "Stockholm", a black comedy about four friends who hide the sudden death of their friend, Nobel Laureate, brings Dayan her dramatic talent. In "Transparent" she also mobilizes her tremendous comedic abilities - and she also seems to enjoy it very much.
"When I read the sketches For the first time I just burst out laughing.
I immediately said it's great written, it's funny.
There is no politically correct name, upside down.
I play a matchmaker who tries to find a match for my puppy and is unsuccessful, because he is not so successful.
We were delighted during the filming.
I really celebrated.
It was wonderful".
* * *
After playing alongside Rivka Michaeli, Mickey Kam and Hannah Leslau in the Israeli version of the "Golden Girls" series, this year Dayan collaborated with her three old friends in the field of poetry as well.
This happened as part of the musical project "Order of the Hour" - an album in three parts initiated by the Nacht Foundation, featuring new performances of various classics from the Israeli soundtrack.
A project that was driven and carried out within the days of the Corona and provided a livelihood for hundreds of singers, musicians and production people.
The four comedians recorded a cover version of the song "Maybe It's Over", written by Jonathan Geffen, composed by Shem Tov Levy and first performed by Arik Einstein in 1973.
Yehuda Eder produced the innovation, and Amir Lekner, who is responsible for the musical performance of the "That's It!"
In the days of the Corona, there was trust in the voices.
The bitter-sweet innovation, loaded with layers of criticism of contemporary Israel, was received with applause, and many hailed it as one of the pinnacles of the entire project.
I noticed that you are present in quality projects that give a central stage to the older actresses.
"It's interesting, I didn 't think about it, but it's true. First of all, I'm at this age, and still want me to participate in things.' Golden Girls' was a rare piece of casting actresses who are in continuous action. None of us made a 'comeback' and brought her up. From the abyss of oblivion. These are women who have been working for five decades or more, talented, with a resume that everyone knows - with whom we also came to sing in the studio.
"Therefore, our song in 'Order of the Hour' was forgiven, because we are at this age.
Because 'could it be over?'
Hey, what the hell, it's not allowed to say such a thing. "For
you, is something really over in the country?
" I say that nothing is over, and that everything will be fine.
But the fact that we are saying this, that the voice of each of us is already known and familiar, has made the difficult statement forgivable. "Have
you never felt that it is difficult to mature in the profession you have chosen?
" No, really not.
The thing is really the way you make the profession, the choices you make.
People meet me on the street and tell me, 'If you participate in the show - we come to see'.
That means they probably notice that I do not do nonsense, do not do by hand, do not do 'like'.
Each time I want to move forward even further, not to recycle, not to recreate. "
Do you have a dream role left? A fantasy you have not yet fulfilled?
" No, there is no specific role, but I do want to play a man.
After Hanoch Levin's 'Craft of Life' (which aired in 1998 in Beit Lessin, directed by Oded Kotler and starring the late Dayan and Yossi Banai; MK), Tzipi wanted me to continue in her theater.
She took me to a Japanese restaurant because she knows I really like Japanese food, and that you can buy me sushi.
She asked, 'What do you want to do?'
And I told her I wanted to play drunk and a man. "
Why drunk?
" Because I'm good at it.
All my jokes in shows I’ve put up over the years have been about drunks, and I'm good at playing real drunks, not drunks that people sometimes imitate excessively.
After all, drunk, when he is drunk - all his desires are that they will not know that he is drunk.
Tzipi came back to me after a week and said to me, 'I found you drunk, in the play' The Water Remembers'. And I actually played drunk, a role for which I received the supporting actress award in the theater in 2001. Although I did not deserve it, because the play was not who knows what (laughs) ) ".
She was born in Tel Aviv.
Her father, Shimon, was a jadeite, and her mother, Ziona, a social worker.
At the age of 6, the whole family (with her sister and two brothers) moved to Ramat Gan.
Upon her release from the military troupe she joined the Cameri Theater, starred in the stormy play "Bath Queen" by Hanoch Levin and soon became identified with humor - mostly wild.
She starred in a series of sketches "Lol", with the mythological group of Uri Zohar and Arik Einstein, starred in "This is it!"
And was on the sitcom team "Close Relatives" from the 1980s, which gained cult status.
In recent years she has starred in the series "Golden Girls", "Virgins", "My Successful Sisters", "That's How It Is", "Stockholm", "Allows Agunot" and more.
"My life is full of humor, and so is the conduct of my family. It helps to live life much more pleasantly. I have friends who have accompanied me since time immemorial and terribly make me laugh. Because of the corona, for a long time we did not have a meeting of laughter and nonsense. I had such a meeting, I did not hug.
"I recently called an old friend, and we both burst out laughing, to the point of crying.
I literally cried out of longing for it.
After the hugs to the grandchildren I have a longing for the audience, I really miss making him laugh.
Listen to his laughs, work in my profession.
I do not know how to do anything else. "
Why not put on a solo show again, like in the good old days?
" I had a solo show at the age of 22, at the beginning of my career.
50 years later, when the Corona started, I was really thinking of a new show, but the energy in that period does not enable me to do it.
I love being on stage with people, not dying on my own.
"When I was celebrating 70, my daughters organized a hysterical surprise party for me at the chamber. Only people I love were invited, including Agent Eric Kenler and my beloved grasshopper, who directed us in 'The Golden Girls.' They both jumped on me and said, 'Well, enough already, do a solo show. "So I will do, I will do.
" When I entered the "Craft of Life" with Yossi Banai, I already earned better and no longer needed the solo shows, which were gigs.
Today it is called stand-up.
"It's important for me to say that thanks to those gigs I realized, and I say this with utter immodesty, that I can overcome any audience."
The Corona period may not have provided her with energy for the show, but it certainly equipped her with a new block, which she proudly models for me in the green garden. Do you see how I lost weight? "Her eyes betray a smile under a mask adorned with black-and-white heart paintings. Black pants and a shirt close to her body, and a short blonde haircut on her head.
" It started right on the first day of the corona.
I have an amazing armchair in the house, which I sit on - and on either side of it are small tables.
As usual, I took Bamba, Beasley, French fries on one side, and sneakers and fun on the other.
Then I turn on the TV, take Bamba by the hand, put it in my mouth and say to myself, what?
Is this how I will mourn the corona period?
Is that what it will be?
After all, I will become a mountain of man!
"I got up right away, took all the snacks and in an exaggerated 'I do it' movement - I put them in the trash. I've never been able to do that before. I have no word, I have no discipline, I'm awful. So I threw in the bin, and started a 16/8 diet. , In which it is permissible to eat during the day for 8 hours, and then one must fast for 16 hours - until the recount the next day.
"One of my grooms did this diet, so I started too, and it went for me.
After all, this is a period in which I have no commitments.
Sometimes I would look at the clock and say, 'Wow, it's already 5'.
But then I realized that I have no rehearsals to go to anyway, I have no plays, I have nothing.
So what if it's 5 o'clock?
(Laughs) It worked for me, because if I was very hungry I could just go to sleep.
"The weight loss was fast, and I was so amazed by it, because I'm used to being overweight. So I said, 'Okay, I'm going on. I'd cut down on carbs and sugars, because I'm in all risk groups, and it worked. I order lots and also cook. Make raw salmon with Avocado and onion, like a sashimi salad, and it tastes good to me. It works, and I'm fine.
"Today I also feel much better.
I take from the closet something that was always so tight or tight, and suddenly it comes to me.
It's fun. "
Speaking of a sense of renewal, when will we finally get to see the reunion of" Close Relatives "? You must have seen the merry comeback my friends made" This is it! "
" 'This is it!'
Great, and they sing great.
In 'Close Relatives' this will no longer happen.
NO WAY.
Hannah (Maron, who died in 2014; MK) is no longer here. Yehoram Gaon plays in 'Sabri Marnan'. I also did not want the single reunion episode that aired in 2005 at the time. In my eyes it is pathetic. You do after so many years "Union, they all look a little older, fatter and looser. For what?"
Speaking of Yehoram Gaon, he is considering running for president.
What do you think about this?
"If he runs - I think he is suitable for it. The State of Israel loves him, he loves the country and Jerusalem, and he has already done everything. He is great and charming, and thank God, he is healthy at his extreme age (81; MK).
He is respected and presidential, and I love him very much. "
* * *
Dayan's family members have long understood the cultural asset that runs through them, and in recent years they have been working to perpetuate my portfolios as much as possible.
What began as a complete refusal of the housewife turned into a black-and-white cinematic documentary that would someday reach the big or small screen.
"We are a very connected family," Dayan explains.
"My daughters and grooms decided it was worth doing a project on me and photographing me in all sorts of situations. Idan, my groom (Roni's husband; MK), has been accompanying me for five years with a camera.
At first I was against, I said it was completely megalomaniacal and I had no power for it.
"I'm also not one of those people who goes to TV and is interviewed about the situation on morning shows, for example. I do not have the strength to be asked how I pass the corona. After all, someone next to me asked her a question. Did you hear what he answered? For me it's the same thing. Also to say that it's hard?
"But Idan insisted, and he goes with me everywhere.
He's not with us right now just because of the closure.
Meanwhile, material began to accumulate, and my daughter Gili edited it.
My late husband was a wonderful editor, and she got the relevant talent from him: amazing timing, great taste, technical understanding, everything. "
She pulls out her cell phone again and gives me a glimpse of a scene in which she is seen watching herself in her youth, when she sang on a TV show in the 1970s, alongside her thoughts on art and love in a conversation with her son-in-law.
Everything is presented in artistic black and white.
"I still do not know if it will be a movie or a series. Idan came with me to meetings, to auditions, I have already gotten used to it. Every week I give him my schedule ahead, and on top of all that he comes to my house once a week, to shoot and talk.
"Gili made a section with files where I say, 'His name is Idan, and this is my groom,' because that's the sentence I say everywhere we go. It turned out funny and really fun. In general, we're a family with humor, and that's what saves us."
* * *
By the time you get back to the theater, Dayan has realized that the Corona era has turned the Internet into the "right" place where everything happens.
"A few days ago, the Moore Foundation and I were asked to hold a videotaped meeting between us, at the invitation of the Kfar Saba municipality, for the residents of the city to watch. I immediately called Odia Koren, who did such a thing with Nathan Datner, and told her, 'Save me, what am I doing?'
Odia recommended that Keren and I tell how we got to know each other, talk about family and career, and mention funny things that happened to us. I immediately wrote a list of dozens of topics.
"Keren came to my house, and my son-in-law (Gili's husband) arranged the zoom for me, Because I do not know how to deal with it. To this day I only knew how to press OK when I was invited.
"We have to talk when we have three small windows in front of people I do not know.
I said to the foundation, 'Three is good too.'
The meeting begins, and Keren blossoms, talks great, and I talk too.
When we finished, I had a feeling we were not talking about anything.
But then the director of the Kfar Saba Hall of Culture came up to us and said, 'You two are charming and funny, you must have a plan together.'
And we hear applause from three people.
"I ask the principal how many people watched us, and she answers '200'. Wow, 200 people! So we said, wow, they also paid us some money for this filmed show, so maybe in the meantime we will have some income from shows like that."
Many artists have performed in Corona in the courtyards of private homes and in Zoom.
"I did not perform in the courtyards, but I zoomed twice with 'The Show Mast Go Home' (a zoom show created by Sharon Danon, Noa Lazar-Keinan and Atalia Zehavi-Sagi, starring well-known actors in an online broadcast; MK).
I had a sketch with Joseph Swede, when he's in Munich and I'm here.
It was very nice, but I did not connect so much with it, because of technology issues. "
Maybe it's time for you to learn?
" It's a different language, and I'm at an age where you can not speak it.
My late husband was a computer genius. My son-in-law works in high-tech, and Idan also understands this very well. So there are people around me who help me. I guess if I were concentrating, I would learn to operate it. But there is always someone who does for me, so I do not have to ".
Maya19.10@gmail.com