Nurit Yaari's study of the ‘classical tradition’ on Israeli stages, appropriately published in the Classical Presences series at Oxford University Press, is an exemplary study of a complex and multifaceted cultural encounter between the past and the present: the integration of the classical Greek and Roman legacies into the gradually emerging Israeli theatre culture. Yaari's research presents a comprehensive overview, minutely analysing both how classical dramatic texts and their adaptations have been performed within the local theatre repertoires, and how this classical heritage has become one of the integral components of indigenous Israeli playwriting and performance traditions.
Israeli culture emerged from the Zionist movement and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948; even if it was based on secular premises, the culture stemmed from another ancient culture that for religious reasons was openly hostile to theatrical representation. Jerusalem was the symbolic cradle of the Hebrew Bible and monotheism, while Western theatre was born in Athens in tandem with democratic institutions and philosophical thinking. Both were located at close distance from the shores of the Mediterranean and the remnants of Roman amphitheatres in Israel bear witness to the physical proximity of the two cultures. However, from a cultural perspective, both had been kept almost totally separate prior to the formation of a Zionist/Israeli culture.
The basic question Yaari tackles in her study is how the ‘classical’ legacies, which were considered radically foreign to traditional Jewish culture, gradually become an important source of inspiration for the Hebrew theatrical culture, which when it was established during the first decades of the twentieth century literally had no tradition of its own to rely on. Her basic premise is that ‘apart from the dramatic and aesthetic values of classical Greek drama, Israeli theatre makers have been inspired by the essential bond between classical Greek drama and Athenian democracy, and the lessons it can offer in relation to the chief moral and political dilemmas facing Israel since independence’ (p. 23), essentially having to choose between, or try to bridge, a particularistic Jewish heritage, on the one hand, and a more universalist commitment to a Western-style liberal democracy, on the other.
The first two Classical plays to be produced in Hebrew – in 1945 and 1947, during the interregnum between the end of the Second World War and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 – were Racine's Phaedra (which is both a Classical play in its own right and an adaptation) and Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus. They were both performed at the Habima Theatre which had been founded in Moscow in 1917 and was to become the Israeli National Theatre in 1958, on Israel’s tenth anniversary.
Yaari discusses and analyses more than thirty productions until 2015, at mainstream theatres, in fringe venues and in educational contexts – many in depth, some more generally, but always with an eye to the complexities of theatrical production, also including several productions which were judged not artistically successful. The complex teamwork of the theatre is presented through a series of carefully researched performance analyses, from the choice of the play and its translation to the audience reception. She convincingly argues that the classical legacy enabled the theatre-makers to criticize the ideology and politics of Israel as it repeatedly failed to prevent the (still ongoing) evil circle of war and occupation – no doubt contributing to the image of the theatre as being ‘leftist’ – and she shows how the classical legacy, which had originally developed within a complex ideo-political context of internal strife, is successfully (at least for the development of the Israeli theatre) transposed to its new habitat within Israeli culture.
Besides the ideo-political contexts of the classical theatre, an interesting issue that emerges in the book is the extent to which the Hebrew translations of classical plays – and, as an extension of this, Israeli theatre more generally – has developed a stylistically elevated (poetic) language that relies on biblical Hebrew, which is in part contemporary to the dramatic heritage of ancient Greece. Yaari provides some important insights into this issue, and opens the door for more specific research. Additionally, prospective research and thinking about Jewish or Israeli tragedy as dramatic genres (not primarily something that happens to Jews and Israelis) will find much material to mine in this book.
In the final sections of her study, Yaari additionally discusses an important aspect of the reception of classical theatre in Israel, presenting pedagogical activities and student productions, in particular in higher education. She generously shares her own experiences and reflects on the trajectory of her own career, from being a student of theatre studies and classics to becoming a professor at Tel Aviv University and a dramaturg at the Jerusalem Khan Theatre. As we reach the bibliography and the index, this rich experience has been complemented by an impressive book.
