"Who is this extinguished woman lying in front of me? The girl who became a woman my age? How did I veer off the path? How did I fake a smile? How did I live for years in its dark shadow? The wrinkles whisper a story to me as I watch. They stop time. How did I get here? If I could go back to those moments, if I could choose another life."
Miki Kam tortured Sonia Peres // Correspondent: Maya Cohen, Photo: Shmuel Buchris
Mickey Kam asks these probing questions. But no - the veteran actress, one of the personalities of Israeli humor, does not take into account here her personal life or her eternal relationship with musician Yehuda Ader, president of the Rimon School. She raises the fateful questions from another famous woman who spent her life alongside a different kind of president – the president of the country.
These days, Kam enters the image of the late Sonia Peres, wife of the late Prime Minister and former President Shimon Peres, who passed away in 2011, at the age of 87. Peres, who throughout her life made sure to avoid as much publicity and public attention as possible, has now become the heroine of the original musical "Sonia", which was staged at the Haifa Theater. The musical was inspired by her long-standing relationship with Shimon, which had its ups and downs, under a common destiny that was also tied to the fate of the entire country.
Sonia and Shimon Peres in the 80s, photo: Gary Abramovich
Despite her status, Sonia Peres is considered one of the most hidden politicians' wives in the history of Israeli public life. "She's an enigma, really not much is known about her," Kam also tries to explain. "Sarah Netanyahu, it's very clear. Leah Rabin? Also very obvious. But Sonia is an unknown and intriguing character. The musical was built around things we know about Sonia from the archives, historical and political points, and on the basis of which the scenes, which are fictional, were written. I didn't do research on Sonia's character, I never do research, but suddenly, during rehearsals, her picture appeared before my eyes."
Not in the section of the nation's greats
"Sonia", directed by Ido Rosenberg, was created by Shahar Shamai (libretto) and Guy Peretti (music), accompanied by the Revolution Orchestra conducted by Roy Oppenheim and Nir Cohen-Shalit (alternately). Forget the musical of a big show, revolving stages and other glitter: like the humble character of Sonia Peres herself, this is an intimate theatrical-musical event, in which only two actors work alongside Kam - Sapir Baumwell (as young Sonia) and Zohar Badash (as Shimon).
Zohar Badash and Sapir Baumwell as young Shimon and Sonia in "Sonia". "Growing Up Together on Stage", Photo: Micha Brickman
"Our acquaintance with Sonia on stage happens during the establishment of the state (she immigrated to Israel from Poland in 1927; MK), and that's most appropriate for the period we're all going through right now," Kam says. "At one of the rehearsals, a friend said to me: 'Oh dear, the characters still don't know what awaits them' – and that, to me, is a deep and beautiful sentence.
"The stage is the Land of Israel, full of cypresses, and we move in scenes from the establishment of the state and the founding of Kibbutz Alumot, to the end, when it is known that Sonia asked not to be buried in the plot of the nation's greats, even though her state status allowed it (she also refused to live with her husband in the president's residence; M.K.), but preferred the cemetery in the Ben Shemen youth village. On the way there's the trip to New York and Rabin's assassination, and you're all sitting in chills, because you realize that nothing has actually changed here. We are a war bereavement country, and every time we nod and chuckle our tongues, and it repeats itself. Only the names of the wars change, and the years."
Apropos of the current era, at one point you say from Sonia's mouth, "Everyone has his own Israel, and we have no other country."
"That's right. It is impossible not to get excited about it, because reality is constantly patting us in the face, it only replaces its states of accumulation. There is nothing more fitting than the show for the contemporary time, it is so embracing of the period. Sonia is a main character who is very easy to like, because she stood by Shimon all these years, even though she did not tolerate the political place she had to be in."
The world of politics is very far from yours.
"The women who stood with politicians had to take a stand. Some adapted, and some stood aside. I guess if I were a politician's wife, I would behave just like Sonia."
"It took me many years to find my personal voice card." Miki Kam, Photo: Micha Brickman
The musical about her character is very different in concept from what the Israeli audience is familiar with in the genre.
"The decision was to deal with young Sonya and Shimon, who grow older throughout the play. Shimon, who later in life became a much-loved figure in Israel, is present in the plot, even though the story focuses on Sonia. He made a lot of moves that forced her to go with him, and in the musical we understand what she felt, and we get her point of view. I must say that the decision of the Haifa Theater, and its CEO, Nitza Ben-Zvi, to go for an original musical deserves respect."
Playwright Shahar Shammai: "Sonia left Shimon at the end of his life and died five years before him, and I thought it was sad. I realized that people didn't really know the story. There is very little information about Sonia, who was a very private person, and the little that has been written about her indicates that she was a woman with a statement and values. That's something I've tried to preserve. I was in awe of her character. It's clear to me that if she were alive she would oppose the musical.
"On the other hand, her story is moving and feminist. For 60 years she was the wife of one of the most important people in Israeli politics, and she was never seen. What connected them, besides their great love, was their Zionism, and Sonia's expression of Zionism was in working the land. Many also talked about her secret waiting. She donated money, adopted two lone soldiers (the Peres have three children: Tzvia, Yehonatan and Nehemiah), and didn't make it into the spotlight. She was not interviewed, except once, for her granddaughter's school newspaper, where she shared a recipe."
Playwright Shahar Shammai: "It's a moving and feminist story. For 60 years, Sonia was the wife of one of the most important people in politics, and she was not seen. She donated in secret, adopted lone soldiers, and the only time she was interviewed was for her granddaughter's school newspaper, where she shared a recipe."
I understand that the Peres family was not involved in the creation of the musical, but knew about its existence.
Kam: "I know Sonia and Shimon's son, Yoni (veterinarian Dr. Jonathan Peres), who loves music very much and is a true friend of Rimon. I met him at school and he said, 'I knew you were going to be my mother. She was a very hidden woman, how would that be a musical?' I replied: 'Yoni, here's the artist!' I'm an actress, I don't think how they'll react, I just want to be authentic and emotional. Everything else has nothing to do with me.
"I love that there's nothing yellow about this musical, there's no judgment. There's nothing here that the family might say, 'Oh dear.' It's very glorifying of Sonia's place, and I hope they like it."
The musical side of the musical is quite demanding.
"The music blew me out. It's the most challenging thing I've done so far in my life musically. There are lots of scale changes, counterpoints. There are only three of us on stage, but it looks and sounds busy. To me, it's a wonderful artistic gesture."
Sonia and Shimon with their children Tzvia, Yehonatan (Yoni) and Nehemia (Hemi), 1958, photo: Avraham Vered, "In the Camp" editorial board, courtesy of the IDF Archives at the Ministry of Defense
"We gave ourselves Order 8"
At the age of 68, Kam is one of the busiest and most respected actresses in the country. She met Adar (72) in the Nahal troupe, and since then the two, who have been married for 48 years, have become a blue-and-white powerhouse, with a fine next generation in the form of two creative sons - singer Alon Adar (40) and actor Nadav Adar (32). There are also three grandchildren: David (11), Rafa (8) and Mona (4).
"I'm very boring, and I'm totally at peace with it, do you want me to get divorced?" she smiles when I remind her of her life free of showbiz dramas. "We've been together for half a century. I don't feel different from others, I feel like the world is crazy. People are divorcing en masse, separating, and with us it didn't work. The marriage was successful.
"What's the secret? I don't know how to say, I have no idea. It worked. Two people who also developed side by side, each in his own way. It's not just about supporting – it's also not disturbing others, which is a great virtue. People often wake up in the morning, look at their spouses and say, 'This is not the person I married.' So we're also definitely not who we were 20 years ago, but maybe we've learned to correct the mistakes on the fly."
We meet at their home in the Old North of Tel Aviv. A bright, homely and warm apartment, which makes it immediately clear - this is where cultural people live. Shelves with art and music books, professional photographs of the two, works of art, a study for Yehuda with a variety of guitars, a walk-in closet for Mickey that would not shame Carrie Bradshaw, and a room for grandchildren who come to sleep.
"I don't regret throughout my career for things I didn't do or crappy things I did, that I can count on one hand and I won't count them, but I guess they were necessary for my growth," she says. "As the cliché goes, out of these things you grow. I'm at peace with the decisions I've made."
Despite your immense singing talent, you released only a single solo album, Time Is Eternity, in 2013. Don't you have any regrets about a singer's career that didn't happen?
"I don't have an answer to that. One day I can say, 'There's something frustrated about me because of this,' and another day I'll say, 'I don't have time for this, because I'm doing other things that I enjoy.' To me, I'm a singer, and I do that in plays I participate in. Life led me to the theater, and I stuck very strong pegs there, and that was it. I can't think all day, 'What if?' It's tiring."
Kam: "Sonia is an enigma, really not much is known about her. Sara Netanyahu: It's very clear. Leah Rabin? Also very clear. But Sonia is an unknown and intriguing character. I didn't research her, but I guess if I were a politician's wife, I would behave just like her."
"Time is Eternity" was produced by Yehuda. The two also returned to collaborate on an intimate couple show they first staged during the pandemic, "20-plus-year-old love," after the world stop managed to make time for both of them. "We always said that when we were gone, we would do a little pocket show, and lo and behold, when we were gone, there was a knock on the door," she laughs. "The show is a kind of retrospective about our life together, couple and professional, to show the audience our backstage, to put them in the living room, in the kitchen, up to the bedroom. I thought the show would go down when the coronavirus was over, but we're moving on."
Since October 7, the couple's show has taken on a dramatic twist, and like any artists' encounter with an audience after the disaster, it is loaded with a new meaning. "A week after the massacre, Yehuda and I sat at home watching the horrors on TV. Then I told him: 'We need to appear before the evacuees.' Immediately, with the help of Nili Peterson, we mobilized and distributed Order 8 to ourselves. Do we know how to fight? Not. We know how to sing, to make people happy, to comfort."
Meeting the evacuees is obviously mentally difficult.
"I didn't let myself sit back for a moment and understand what was going on, what I was going through. I didn't cry the whole war. Do you know when I first cried? Yesterday, in a TV article about the guys from Kibbutz Reim, who moved everyone to man two Florentine towers. 450 families. This is a community that needs to be guarded with silk gloves. They plowed the land, what do they have now and the towers, scooters and elevators? I saw the article and crashed. The children of the community go to study at a nature school, and in a conservation house, between two giant towers, kindergartens have been established. This situation made me cry. I was moved by the comforting, good place of coming out of the inferno to the resurrection.
"I'm a very survivalist person, all my life I've been involved in survival and not giving myself the moment of 'oh dear, what have we been through' – but focusing on how to get out of it. When they don't need me, I'll fall apart."
What does this mean?
"I'm a person of action. I do. You can't fall apart now, this is not the time. Especially if you can help. That's why we immediately set out to perform."
It is almost impossible not to fall apart in the situation we all find ourselves in, when the country is going through an inferno.
"In Eastern cultures, community elders become shamans (with the ability to communicate with spirits and a hidden universe, who are perceived as endowed with knowledge; M.C.). I read an article about singer Joni Mitchell, who at the age of 21 gave her baby daughter up for adoption because she was unable to raise her. People told her, 'How brave you are.' She replied that in Eastern culture it is called shamanism, and in Western culture it is a nervous breakdown. So maybe I'm not a shaman, but just in a nervous breakdown.
"In many performances in front of the evacuees, we were joined by Daniel Weiss, a former student of Yehuda from Kibbutz Be'eri, whose father, Shmulik z"l, was murdered on October 7. His mother, Yehudit z"l, was first declared missing, then abducted, and then her body was found in Gaza. When Yehuda was informed of his father's murder, he arranged a sound for his funeral, and when Daniel heard that we were performing, he asked to join us. Said he had to sing his scream.
"כשהודיעו על איתור הגופה של אמו היינו בטוחים שהוא לא יגיע להופעה, אבל הוא בא עם הגיטרה. זה היה המרפא שלו. ההופעה היתה קורעת לב, כמובן. בדרך כלל דניאל עולה בהופעות באמצע, כשאנחנו מדברים על 'רימון', ומספר את הסיפור שלו. בקהל שכולו מפונים מייד מתחברים ומתייפחים, ואז אני שרה את 'בואנה בואנה הבנות', כי החיים חזקים וממשיכים.
"יהודה אמר לי: 'אני יודע שאת תרימי אותנו' - ואני קיבלתי את התפקיד הזה. אני מרימה, עושה את זה בקלות רבה, אבל אחר כך מתפרקת, כשאני עם עצמי. אני רואה אמא וילד בבית קפה, יושבים ומדברים, ויכולה להתפרק. אחת לכמה שעות במשך היום יש לי את המשפט 'אבל מה עם החטופים?' - מין מנטרה שאני אומרת לעצמי".
Kam: "I know Sonia and Shimon's son, Yoni. He said, 'I understood you were going to be my mother. She was a very hidden woman, how would that be a musical?' I replied: 'Yoni, here's the artist!' I'm an actress. I don't think how they'll react, I just want to be authentic and excited."
Grief attacks after "cabaret"
The role of "lifter" also helped you in moments of personal sadness and loss, such as the stillbirth you experienced in the past, or your son Alon's cancer?
"I am a strong person, but not completely unbreakable. Yehuda and I stayed together after the stillbirth. I know couples who didn't stay, because it's destabilizing. That happened 34 years ago. Alon was 6 years old, I was nine months old - and I gave birth to a stillborn baby. Yehuda and I were very much together in this, and yes, it was a very big break. Not a tragedy, but a very big drama."
Not a tragedy?
"No, drama. First of all, I had a child, who would be healthy. At the time, it was also not a publicly discussed topic. After the stillbirth, I went back to the maternity ward, which is now unacceptable, and it was very difficult. You are not born a strong person. I think life is a puzzle – you get a little bag with pieces, and when you complete and finish you pass away. Some don't finish the puzzle, and some finish too early. That's how I see the world. I strongly believe in reincarnation, and I believe that what happens should happen. The girl probably shouldn't have been born, that's how I see it."
How long did it take you to recover?
"People told me, 'Get pregnant right away, that's the healthiest thing,' but I had to go through grief, processing, and waiting until the right time came. I had just gotten the musical Cabaret, I lost weight immediately, and grief was waiting. I put on 'Cabaret,' and when it was over, I went into very deep mourning.
"I went to psychological therapy with a wonderful woman, sat with her several times. And one day, almost two years after giving birth, I came to her on a spring day in early autumn and said, 'I think that's it, I've grieved. I understand what I've been through, and I'm ready to get pregnant.'
"Then lightning, thunder, torrential rain started outside. I look at her, she at me, and we both laugh and cry. It was obvious that this was a sign. Pretty soon I got pregnant. I talked a lot to women who had experienced a similar story. I also wanted to make a play about it, and somehow life..."
And years later, it turned out that Alon had cancer.
"Alon was in the army, and one day he told me that he had a lump in his testicle for several months. We arranged an appointment for him to see a urologist. It was Friday. He went to the doctor, and Yehuda and I sat in a café, as we did every weekend. Then Alon called and said: 'You need to come, it's cancer.'
"We immediately ran and checked what we were doing. And here, too, I don't fall apart. Need me, you know? Yehuda needs me, the children need me. One day I went to a tarot card reader. I took out the parchment of a slouched man, barely walking, on his back a plank full of people standing on it and rejoicing. And the man goes and carries the world on his back. That's how I feel. It's not something I got, it's something I took. Something you delegate to yourself. I'm also the eldest sister in the house, three daughters and a son."
Isn't it tiring sometimes, this role?
"I'm sure it is, but I don't sit and think to myself whether it's right to take this role or not. That's the job. Everyone has a role in this world. That's my job. Coping with cancer was quick. Alon was being monitored, and slowly the distances between the surveillance increased. It's been almost 22 years since then. There were a lot of jokes running around the house afterwards about 'What egg do you want?' – it's a house where people talk and laugh."
Kam: "I'm offered reality shows all the time, including cooking shows. I went to Dancing with the Stars because I love dancing. No matter how much money they offer me now, I don't care, I can't sell myself. What do I need someone to grade me on how I cook?"
When Kam talks about her family, her smile is joined by a twinkle in her eyes. And as a mother who is well acquainted with the pros and cons of the entertainment world, she has something to say about the professional choice of her two sons.
"They're good at what they do, very talented. Alon already has receipts in the field, an audience. He wrote his first song when he was 10, and when he was 18 he wrote something that I said, 'When will everyone know he's a genius?' He has a very special ID card, and slowly it happened.
"Nadav completed his acting studies with Yoram Levinstein, and is currently playing his first role in a repertory theater, in 'The Comedy about the Bank Robbery' at Camry, an insanely funny play. He was accepted for another show at Meditech and does beatboxing. Very competent. I don't worry about them."
Let's talk about the grandchildren.
"I am deeply in love with them. I'm not a grandmother who babysitters regularly and takes out of kindergarten and frameworks on regular days, I'm a different grandmother. We go to see plays, make plays, sing, play. I love cooking with them. They saw things I did on stage, and from time immemorial, on YouTube."
As a native of Kibbutz Manara, how does the situation in the north affect you? The kibbutz houses are being hit by Hezbollah missiles.
"The north is a bit of my home. I didn't grow up there, because at the age of 3 I left with my parents for Tel Aviv, from there to Givatayim, Bat Yam, Herzliya, and then I went to high school in Kfar HaYarok. When I see what's happening there, that half the houses have been destroyed, I have such a jump in my heart. My parents grew up there, and Yitzhak Rabin's sister babysat me for a day or two."
You will turn 69 in June. Does the approaching age of 70 bring with it thoughts?
"Nope. Yesterday, someone came up to me with her daughter at the end of a show and said, 'Do you understand that Mickey and I are from the same yearbook? Do you think I can do what she did on stage?' So I say 'thank you,' smile and walk away. I thank God that I am still working and courting in the profession. In my eyes, I sing much better today than when I was 20, because I also found my ID card.
"It took me many years to find the voice, personal, private certificate. Today there is really no difference between what I project out and who I am. I used to not know who I was. You adopt mannerisms and ornaments, and over the years you separate from them. I love this Henshel's places so much. I really have two feet planted in the ground. Over the years, I understand what was handled and what was the main thing, and I don't have the energy for nonsense."
Kam: "I cried for the first time during the war in front of an article about evacuees in Florentin. It crushed me from the comforting, good place. All my life I've been dealing with survival and not giving myself that moment of 'oh dear, what have we been through' – but focusing on how to get out of it. When they don't need me, I'll fall apart."
"I'm not that tall"
Kam is currently acting on stage in Hanoch Levin's "The Work of Life", where she shares with Hannah Laszlow the role of Labiva Popuch. She also participates in the musical show "The Women's Cabinet", alongside Tali Oren and Meshi Kleinstein, a production of the National Theater founded by Sami Levy, which was born during the war. In between, she makes sure to go to the institute three or four times a week, does Pilates and stretching, and strengthens the body of someone who went down to spaghette in prime time, when she joined "Dancing with the Stars" in 2007 and made it all the way to the semifinals.
"I'm offered reality shows all the time, including cooking shows, because I cook great. I went to 'Dancing' because it's the performing arts. No matter how much money they offer me now, I don't care, I can't sell myself. I love to move and dance, and I knew I would show everyone where Pessobella pees from. But for another reality show? What do I need someone to grade me on how I cook?"
The doors of Kam's impressive walk-in closet are exceptionally long. She said they were meant to contain the dresses that would adorn her body, which stretched 174 centimeters long.
"I'm not that tall, I'm just long-limbed," she clarifies. "I have long legs and arms. Orna Datz is 1.78 meters, and no one talks to her about her height. They always talked to me. Even as a teenager I went hunched over. I was the height of the boys, and I was harassed with questions like, 'What's the weather up there?' They called me Langer Lokesh.
"Today I look at the tall girls, and it's fun. Every once in a while I tell someone, 'Straighten up,' and then I straighten up too, because it's a bit of a mirror image of me."
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