Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 23 (IANS) Israel top’s contemporary playwright, Motti Lerner, has a slice of India in his heart. One of his Hebrew plays has been given an Indian avatar — with an Indian cast — by an indigenous theatre ensemble in the capital.

“My play In the Dark is being performed here these days by the Chingari Group,” the 62-year-old told IANS. “Their show is very inspiring and moving, which points to new theatrical options. The fusion of a well-made play and Indian traditions can create a miraculous experience.”

The play by the Chingari Group, directed by K. Madavane, was staged at the Alliance Francaise here Sep 22.

It is about a musician who returns home from US after 18 years to perform in his city and bond with his family. Set in the Tel Aviv of 1970s, it comments on the modern material world, conflicts in families and power games between siblings.

Director Madavane said the play was not culture specific because the story of family feud and sibling wars were international.

Lerner, currently in India, will talk about his works at the Kovalam Literary Festival Oct 1-2.

“All my life I was conditioned by European theatre styles. Here I discovered new options,” Lerner said. “I have learnt a lot from fusion.”

Born in 1949, Lerner studied mathematics and physics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He also attended theatre workshops in London and San Francisco. During 1976-1979, he wrote experimental street plays and directed them.

Lerner teaches political playwriting at the Tel Aviv University and has won the Prime Minister of Israel’s Award for Writers in 1994.

Lerner, who has written 10 international plays, including Exile in Jerusalem, The Murder of Issac, Passing the Love of Women and Hard Love, is “secular in his spiritual outlook”.

Most of his plays probe human relationships in the socio-religious backdrop of modern-day Israel and the uneasy nexus with Palestine.

The world today is God-stricken where “too many people kill in his name and too many die in his name”, believes the man who is on his second trip to India.

“I have been to India last year and was very inspired by the people I met,” Lerner said.

“I also travelled to Kerala and participated in a festival of plays by my dear friend H.S Shivaprakash. I am completely taken by this country, the struggle of its people to survive and their struggle to create art,” he said.

“This visit to India and to Kovalam is an opportunity to learn about India from its literary spokesmen,” Lerner said.

(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)