Born in Israel to Persian parents, Orly Noa Rabinyan is an independent theatre director and writer. In her search for cultural hybrids, her work is often characterized by intercultural and multilingual encounters.
“The Appeal” is a performance that features a diversity of voices and identities, while exploring one of the first public performative actions in the history of Israeli culture:
In 1936, the “Habima” circle in British-ruled Tel Aviv staged an imaginary literary trial following the theatre’s decision to perform « The Merchant of Venice » in Hebrew for the first time. Long before the premiere, a public protest was sparked over the question: What should be presented on the stage of the Hebrew Theatre? The accused included none other than William Shakespeare himself, the Habima Theatre, and the director, Professor Leopold Jessner, who had recently fled Nazi Berlin in search of safe asylum.
In 2023, following the artist’s personal act of immigration, the internal and external voices of he homeland’s politics were reawakened and began conducting an ideological and narrative trial within her mind. In “The Appeal,” she seeks to create a public stage for these seemingly contradictory voices and invites an audience to participate in the discussion, similar to the event in 1936. By focusing on the inherent duality in the definition of the Shakespearean play and on Leopold Jessner’s defendant’s speech, “The Appeal” explores disagreement, conflict, silencing, belonging, compromise, binaries and multi-narratives, and endeavors to find tools for conversation and any other form of possible dialogue in this age of division.
For each iteration of this performance, the artist invites representatives of contemporary political voices to engage in argument, provide testimony, perform, represent, reflect, and bridge the historical appeal with the present reality « right here, right now. » Orly Noa Rabinyan created « The Appeal » in Tel Aviv earlier this year, and her current interest lies in examining avenues to expand and adapt it to other cultures and political structures.