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// PRODUCTIONS

// SOMEWHERE

Inspired by Jerzy Kosiński's "Being There" and interlaced with speeches by American presidents throughout history

Adaptation to play and Director: Yael Cramsky | Set and Costume Design: Dina Konson 

Lighting Design: Iris Mualem | Video Art: Iris Mualem and Lior Sadeh | Music: Ronen Shapiro

Research: Einat Kawka | Live Video: Dan Glazer

Actors: Florence Bloch, Dina Blei, Yoav Hait, Ronen Yifrah

Premiered on October 27th, 2019, at Tel Aviv Museum of Art

Somewhere was inspired by Jerzy Kosiński's Being There and is interlaced with speeches by American presidents and quotes from Krylov's Fables. The show examines the nature of dialogue in a competitive society. The plot revolves around Shaunce, who lives in the house of an old man, who had taken him under his custody as a child and placed him in his basement. Shaunce was forbidden from leaving the house and had to work as a gardener and tend to the yard. The landlord also allowed him to watch television. When the landlord passed away, Shaunce was expected to leave his home. Stepping out to the street for the very first time, he tries to replicate his old habits from home. He is suddenly hit by the car of wealthy Mister Grand, president of the National Investment Fund, advisor and confidant of the president, and his wife, Elizabeth. They rush to help him and invite him to their home to recuperate. Shaunce, whose entire knowledge was acquired from gardening and watching television, unwittingly parallels nature's processes with human ones. He offers a nonjudgmental, unbiased mirroring of his surroundings, which quickly makes him popular and beloved by everyone. Shaunce is incapable of forming relationships. Therefore, all the characters vicariously play out their wildest fantasies through him, while leaving those fantasies unfulfilled at the same time.

 

The show explores an era where the telecommunication reality dominates actual reality, where power and wealth drive civilization. It begs the question – what happened to dialogue? It exposes the danger in fundamentally changing the nature of dialogue in a competitive society. Dialogue is replaced by either intensely intimate relationships or extreme alienation, both aimed at maintaining an image of success. Selected speeches of US presidents throughout history demonstrate the distance between words and deeds. The speeches are rhetorical masterpieces that often create inconsistencies that may have multiple interpretations.

Somewhere is a show about nature's ability to teach us about growth and development and about the longing for a dialogue that acknowledges the 'other'.

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