Original Productions

“we won't pay”

 the theater's first production, on june 2010.

“we won't pay” became the catchphrase of the european working class in the 70’s.

the playwright Dario Fo espouses this catchphrase , and made it into one of his most successful and funny plays.

The play's plot takes place in Milan Italy, and focuses on two working class couples - Jovani, chairman of a labor union in a factory; his wife Antonia; his friend, Luigi and his wife, Margareta.

When the working class women fed up with the rising groceries prices, raging Antonia leads the women to a spontaneous looting against the grocery store. her friend, Margareta drawn into the story, when the two have to hide the haul from the straight, idealist Jovani, in Margareta’s coat. Antonia lies to Jovani that Margareta is pregnant, and sets in motion a snowball of lies… but when Jovani finds out that he and Luigi got fired from the factory, and the factory moves to a different and cheaper place, despite the promises of his supervisors, Jovani realizes that he have to take a stand.

From this point forward, begins a web of lies, hiding and fleeing from the police, according the tradition of the Italian farce and the madness of Dario Fo.

The play ends with violations of the law, and joint understanding - we need to take a stand, stop being passive, stand against the authorities and shout: “we won’t pay!”

Credits:

By: Dario Fo

Director: Yoav Michaeli, winner of the 2015 “golden hedgehog” prize.

 To view the trailer

Addiction

Original theatrical creation, which transfers the common addiction experience, using a visual theatrical language. the play is presented in the underground parking of the “youth center” building, which intensifies the experience, and turns it into a unique and unconventional theatrical event. this original play idea, won the 2012“golden hedgehog” prize for best set design.

the play was nominated for 5 “golden hedgehog” awards.

premieres in june 2011.

by: Idan Avisar and Yoav Michaeli.

To view the trailer

Son of the last jew

Based on an episode from Yoram Kaniuk’s monumental book "The Last Jew."  Boaz is a young officer who returns from the war with shell shock and trauma, overwhelmed with guilt over his friend and subordinate Menachem, who died in his arms. He contacts Menachem's family, who find it difficult to go on with their lives. Standing before this grief, Boaz forges a poem allegedly written by Menachem and creates a new and heroic image of Menachem for them. Against his will, Boaz turns into a kind of "memorial business." At the same time a relationship begins to develop between him and Menachem’s fiancee. What is best, to live with a lie that keeps you living? Or face a truth which is unbearable to live with? The play touches the core of Israeli society and raises questions about commemoration, memory, war and bereavement.

THE TRAUMA AND UNSPEAKABLE AFTERMATH OF WAR, IN A CONTEXT YOU'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE.

“In an age of almost perpetual war, we need to grapple with what it leaves behind. Yoav does it in a place that makes us think differently about PTSD.”

— AD David Winitsk

To view the trailer

When you come to sleep with me

A creation of a dance theater based on the poems of Yona Wallach. Another group as part of the Negev Artists Project. The play’s premier was in December 2013.

An original play that describes the journey of adolescence through the provocative, sexual and contrasting poems of Yona Wallach. The play combines surrealist and realistic, literal and poetic, to reconstruct a contemporary profile of adolescent in Israel today.

A group of young people want to understand why everything goes wrong? Why can’t they get to know each other? get together? to touch?

Yona Wallach and her painfully exposed and sexy poems, help them lower their armor, expose themselves, lick their  wounds, touch.
The play was written following a workshop with the actors.

Credits:

Writer: Ido Burnstein.

Director: Shlomo Plesner.

BPolar

A visual adaptation of Nikolay Vasilievich Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman”

The story of a grey clerk, who falls in love with his manager’s daughter. His love becomes an obsession and sparks the bipolar disorder that lurks within him. Based on Gogol’s classic short story, the development of the mental illness is illustrated onstage, through the eyes of its victim. All this, without a single word, through movement, extensive video art, music, and lighting, in the Ayit Ensemble’s unique stage language.

.Yoav Michaeli, the director of the play, won the director of the year of 2015 Award at the Golden Hedgehog Ceremony.

The play was awarded the 2015 Ministry of Culture's International Exposure.
:The Project Appeared at festivals around the world 

"VAULT" Festival, London; "A-PART" festival, under the title "A-PART special" Katowice Poland;

"ZOOFEST" Festival, Montreal Canada; "GIFT" festival, Tbilisi Georgia; "FIAT" festival, Podgorica Montenegro;

"HIGHFEST" Festival, Yerevan Armenia, Theresa Pomodoro International Award "TEATRO- SPAZIO", Milan Italy.

"IEFT" Festival, Hanoi Vietnam, won the gold medal for directing, gold medal for lighting, gold medal for the Master Player and the silver medal for sub actress.

Doctor Baruch

Energetic creation, inspired by the playwright Martin McDonagh, presented by Ait ensemble, with the combination of video art, original music and special lighting.

Premiered in october 2015.

Nominated for 3 “golden hedgehog” awards - best play, best director and best video art for 2016 year.

By: Yoav Michaeli.

To view the trailer

Goral Hagra

“Goral HaGra” is an ancient and clandestine Kabbalic ceremony which has been passed down secretly from generation to generation among Jerusalem’s Rabbis. It is considered highly forbidden and is performed on rare occasions, in times of great distress or emergency.

This performance was inspired and tells the story of the most famous “Goral HaGra” held by Rabbi Aryeh Levin (“Father of Prisoners”), a wondrous exemplar of a Jerusalemite "Tzaddik". On a cold Jerusalem night in December 1950, after repeated pleas on behalf of the bereaved parents of the “Lamed Heh”, a platoon of 35 soldiers that were all killed in battle to the last one in 1948, and became a core myth in Israel and the IDF. Their sons’ remains had just been moved from “Gush Etzion” where they fell and had become Jordanian territory, to “Har Hertzl” military cemetery in Jerusalem, twelve of which were unidentifiable, and thus were buried without a named tombstone.

The "Goral" ceremony was held in the presence of five, two representatives of the bereaved parents, Rabbi Levin, his son and his son-in-law. They fasted and purified themselves all that day, as the success of the “Goral” relies on the purity of those who cast it. In the evening, they lit twelve memorial candles and recited Psalms all night, and at the exact stroke of midnight, the hour at which “the gates of heaven are opened”, Rabbi Levin started to cast the "Goral"… Eleven times he asked, “who lies in this grave?”, opened randomly the ancient “Torah” book, which is required and which he had, said the “Kabbalic” secret words and counted…

seven pages, seven verses, seven words... and every single time, the verse that was cast contained the explicit name of one of the fallen. Eleven times! All of those present were amazed and realized that something entirely inexplicable had just happened…

Upon completion of the ceremony, Rabbi Levine wrote a protocol detailing the events of this incredible event and the results of the “Goral”, and presented it to the Ministry of Defence.

Created by: Yoav Michaeli

"Naples, Brooklyn, Caesarea"

A farce about matchmaking, one story, three places.

The story begins in Naples. Don Carlo, widowed wealthy businessman, desires to marry his only daughter, the feminist Julieta. But it seems that Julieta is not interested in any man, and likewise, no one is interested in her.

Don Carlo is about to give up, until one morning Salvatore Barezi, a hypochondriac Insurance broker, comes knocking on his door with a marriage proposal. Don Carlo won't be letting go of this opportunity.

The only problem he's got, is the vow he gave his late wife Esperanza – that he won't marry Julieta with someone she isn't interested in. When Salvatore's twin brother, Franco, comes with tragic news about the business – Julieta falls in love with him. From this point onward, begins a hilarious comedy of errors.

The story continues in Jewish orthodox style, but with some changes; the same plot, but with different names Don Carlo is now known as Mr. Karlobach, the "Gvir" (rich man) and Julieta is now Judith-Lea, in Brooklyn of the beginning of the 20th century.

The end of the plot takes place in Caesarea of the present, in the home of the oligarch Karlov (past Mr. Karlobach and Don Carlo).

The same plot, the same characters, three different eras and one matchmaking story.

"Shabbat al-Hir" - a non-political comedy show accompanied by ethnic music. A couple of friends sit together for a meal together, talking to each other, together with a partnership. A pair of average, normal and normal friends. Only one is Jewish and the other is a Bedouin. Will this friendship continue to exist despite cultural differences?

Directed by Oren Atias.

"Hotel without a vow" - in the hotel "Without a vow", somewhere in the country three stories take place in three rooms; A bachelor party that comes out of control, the revenge of a betrayed loved one and a birthday party that turns into a heir to the heir of a-sexual hotels. Among them, Molly, the receptionist and the thread that connects the stories, tries to keep the hotel from collapsing and its people ...

Directing, writing and acting: actors of the Eagle Ensemble