The show "Who's Like Me" manages to touch the sensitivity of dealing with youth

"Like Me" (Bridge Theater) may have been a better show with a different frame story. And yet, it is a play that gives quite a few good stage moments and manages to touch sensitivity on important issues such as the soul of the youth

People are not born with mental illness. Some are more susceptible to various illnesses, but mental injury is an acquired, not innate, phenomenon. In Israel, one in ten children and adolescents up to the age of 18 suffers from a severe disorder requiring hospitalization. You can do the 1 + 1 on your own. Anorexia, OCD, schizophrenia, violence and more are not diseases that these children are born with, they have acquired them from the environment.

This is cruel statistics. Ten percent of children in Israel have gone through something that has deeply affected them, from environmental demands to perfection, through compulsive behavior by parents to sexual abuse. In the summer of 2019, the playwrights of the Roi Chen Bridge Theater and director Ilayal accompanied an annual presentation symbol at the "Shahaf" school, during which psychiatrists in a day care center study together with patients from the closed ward at Abarbanel Psychiatric Hospital. This experience led them to bring up "Who Like Me," a fictional play with fictional characters that relies on the experience they experienced during the visit.

Exclusive offer - Try a free service that will save your life

In collaboration

Great game. Who I am (Photo: Isaiah Feinberg)

Who Like Me, Presentation at Bridge Theater (Photo: Isaiah Feinberg, PR)

In "Like Me" the Naama Theater teacher (Tom Antopolsky) arrives at the Orot Mental Health Center, where she meets the department's director, Dr. Heir (Gilad Kelter) and five of his patients, three girls and two boys. Alma (Netta Roth), the adult Barak (Noam Frank) is a violent child with outbursts of rage. In the hospital, but there is good reason for his stay in the institution. They provide escapism and help rescue them complex situation.

There is something problematic about the "Making of" story, a movie about making a movie or a play about raising a play. This is even more problematic when the characters who are starring in an enigmatic and closed play are part of the outer world. The fact that these characters also have to play another character creates a partition bush. There is nothing more natural and touching than connecting to an injured child, but this kind of plot makes it difficult to make that connection. However, the act of raising the play only takes up about a quarter of the time of the play, so for the most part Chen and Sergeant do manage to produce a fair amount of heartfelt and touching moments.

Those who help break down all partitions are the adults. Cleter, in a great and emotional game, demonstrates well how the ward doctor is fully involved in the process of his patients, for better or worse. Karin Saruya and Uri Yaniv embody the parents of all the children and do so mesmerizingly. I have seen Serroya quite a few times in bridge shows, and for my taste, many of her characters make the show one of her best. The wonderful Yaniv also hovers among the characters of the fathers, and does so at the same time, and at the same time.

To penetrate the soul. Who I am (Photo: Isaiah Feinberg)

Who Like Me, A Bridge Theater Performance (Photo: Isaiah Feinberg, PR)

All the boys in the play are wonderful, especially the things about Neta Roth, who plays Alma, 17, who has a manic-depressive disorder. On the face of it, despite its bipolar disorder, it is not supposed to be hospitalized, but among its character traits there is something that justifies it. Root, not yet 19.5, gets the maximum out of the contrasting figure - she can be a beach, but also kind and compassionate, suicidal but lively. She does it so well that without knowing her she will probably be convinced that she is in reality as well.

Surprisingly, one of the deep impressions in the play does not actually leave a character but an accessory prepared by the decorator Polina Adamov - the lion mask used by one of the characters. A mask is a face, and Adamov's mask produces a penetrating and sad but also powerful expression. As the play unfolds, we see the mask and the image of one being. That's how professors are used correctly.

"Like Me" might have been a better show with a different frame story (by the way, Roy Chen and Ilail have all the ground in the world to create a spin-off play in which only one of the kids and his parents will star). To me, at least, showing theater about showing theater, got in the way. And yet, it is a play that delivers quite a few good stage moments and mainly touches on the sensitivity of teenagers' mental struggles, a topic that must be penetrated with the utmost care and not many dares. After about an hour and forty minutes, you will probably also feel that you have gone through a process.