In my creations for the stage, I am greatly interested in classical and poetic texts. I keep coming back to Shakespeare, each time finding myself in a different kind of dialogue with his writings. Sometimes this manifests as an onstage interpretation that resonates powerfully with our contemporary struggles, as I did in Romeo & Juliet. In this bi-lingual production (in Arabic and Hebrew), a Palestinian-Israeli group of artists brings Shakespeare’s story to our own bloody conflict. Sometimes the process leads me to react to the source material, using other Shakespearean texts or even writing original text in dialogue with a theme. This was the case in Knockout, where we addressed gender issues and challenged our preconceptions, mixing bits from the Bard’s plays with our own comments and then throwing it all into a boxing ring.
In some stage adaptations of the classics (such as Kafka’s The Trial) or other poetic materials (such as Sinn by Anja Hilling), I explored the connection between the text as the expressive core of the work and the way the moving body can expand the situation and the atmosphere. Through use of storytelling, the actors gain a sense of freedom that allows us to soar with our imagination throughout the rehearsal process. These processes come together to form a style, both aesthetic and very minimalistic, which puts the ensemble of actors and their relationship with the audience at the centre of the experience.
