Lea Goldberg's novel And This Is the Light, published in 1946, was not well received by readers or critics and remained the only novel she wrote during her lifetime.

In 2018, Yael Cramsky adapted the novel for the stage, incorporating documentary texts from Goldberg's personal diaries. The decision to adapt the novel stemmed from the continued relevance of its reflections on Israeli historiography and the dilemmas facing Israeli society today.

The production explores the fear of madness and the everyday attempts to conceal it, the struggle with inherited traits we would rather reject and erase from our identities, and the need to overcome the past and move forward.

Through acting, singing, and video and sound design, we enter the depths of a mysterious story unfolding around Nora, the protagonist, over the course of a single summer.

Nora returns from her studies in Berlin to spend the summer in Kovno, her hometown, where she discovers that her mother has divorced her father, who suffers from mental illness. Mother and daughter travel to a forest for a holiday. There, they unexpectedly encounter Arin, her father's close friend, who left the town for America twenty-five years earlier.

Nora falls in love with Arin and becomes captivated by his charm. Arin tells Nora that he wishes to meet her father and save him from his illness. Nora is unaware that Arin himself suffers from mental illness. He promises to use his wealth to help her father, filling Nora with renewed hope. Later, however, it becomes clear that he is powerless to save him.

Meanwhile, Nora's mother grows suspicious of Arin's motives and attempts to understand the reason for his return, but to no avail. The inhabitants of the Jewish town are equally uneasy about the American's arrival. They cannot understand what he is seeking in a Jewish town in Eastern Europe after so many years in America.

Rumors begin to spread, and Nora and her mother become targets of the townspeople's hostility. Nora rebels, refusing to accept their judgment. She continues her platonic romance with Arin, while he attempts to inspire in her a sense of trust and security.

In the final scene, Nora receives a letter from Arin's daughter, informing her that her father has disappeared and expressing concern for his well-being. The daughter reveals that Arin suffers from mental illness. Nora concludes that he has taken his own life.

In her final monologue, Nora expresses her longing to erase the past, her childhood, and the hereditary legacy from which she comes, and to begin her life anew.

Nora, the central character, is an embodiment of Lea Goldberg herself. Her complex, contradictory personality gradually unfolds before our eyes. She is characterized by strength and fragility, boldness and submission, courage and fear, but above all, by her love of life. She loves its healthy and luminous aspects, while fiercely rejecting everything and everyone that draws human beings toward the ugly, dark, and disturbing dimensions of existence.

The production ends with Nora's words:

"We want to live. To live fully, to live the life of a human being who is allowed to breathe, to live in the light, in the light of our days yet to come."

Lea Goldberg's extraordinary writing leads us into a profound exploration of the human psyche.

"What do we know of another person's soul? And of our own soul, we know nothing," says Nora, who represents Goldberg in the novel And This Is the Light.

From the earliest stages of developing the adaptation, even before rehearsals with the actors began, it was clear that video would be incorporated into the production in one form or another.

The creative process involved extensive research and experimentation with different methods of projection, filming, and sound and video manipulation. Particular attention was given to the interdependence between sound and light. This exploration ultimately led to the use of a projector that generates vibrations of light on the screen in response to sound vibrations.

The actors' costumes are made of light-colored linen. On the one hand, the monochromatic costumes, in dialogue with the museum space, create an abstract theatrical language expressed through passages from Goldberg's diaries, choral singing, and streams of consciousness detached from time, place, and dramatic action.

On the other hand, the specific cuts and silhouettes of the costumes reflect the characters and their historical period, allowing the audience to remain immersed in the narrative.

The audience is seated around the performers, in close proximity to the performance area. This arrangement creates the possibility of direct interaction between the characters, the actors, and each individual spectator.

The audience thus assumes an active role in the production, becoming a partner to the performers rather than merely observing them.

Click here to watch the production

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