Hanoch Levin: Selected Plays Two

Suitcase Packers; The Lost Women of Troy; The Labour of Life; Walkers in the Dark; Requiem

Hanoch Levin, Jessica Cohen, Evan Fallenberg, Naaman Tammuz, Jessica Cohen, Evan Fallenberg, Naaman Tammuz

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781786829146
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781786829160
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

'Hanoch Levin is the modern world on the stage... we badly need to hear what he has to say.' David Lan

Hanoch Levin was one of Israel's leading dramatists. Born in Tel Aviv in 1943, his work includes comedies, tragedies, and satirical cabarets, most of which he directed himself. He received numerous theatre awards both in Israel and abroad and his plays have been staged around the world. Levin was awarded the Bialik Prize in 1994.

Published in brand-new English translations, these selected volumes of Hanoch Levin, one of Israel's leading dramatists, aim to bring one of the most important playwrights of the Middle East to English speaking audiences.

Plays Two contains the plays Suitcase Packers (1983), The Lost Women of Troy (1984), The Labour of Life (1989), Walkers in the Dark (1998) and Requiem (1999).

SUITCASE PACKERS

A comedy with eight funerals

Translated from the Hebrew by Naaman Tammuz

This ‘comedy with eight funerals,’ as Levin defined it, is about the frustrated hopes, jeopardized plans, disappointed loves of a group of neighbours living in a district of Tel Aviv. Each of the characters’ stories ends with a far-from-glorious death; those who stay behind, attending one funeral after another, go on schlepping their petty lives, waiting their turn.

Cast of Characters

SHABTAI SCHUSTER

BIANCA, his wife

NINA, their daughter

BELLA, their daughter

HENIA GELERNTER

ELHANAN, her son

TZVI, her deceased husband

MUNYA GLOBCHIK

LOLA, his wife

ZIGGY, their son

BOBEH, Munya’s mother

BRUNO HOFSTADTER

TZILA, his wife

AMATSIA, their son

MOTKE TZHORI

TZIPORA, his wife

AVNER TZHORI, his brother, a hunchback

ANGELA HOPKINS, a young American tourist

ALBERTO PINKUS

ELISHA HOOKER

ALPHONSE HUZLI

A PROSTITUTE

A GRAVEDIGGER

A SECOND GRAVEDIGGER

A STREET SWEEPER

A CLERK

TWO PARAMEDICS

TWO HASIDIC JEWS

Premiere	The Cameri Theatre, Tel Aviv, 1983
Director	Michael Alfreds
Costume and Stage Design	Ruth Dar
Lighting Design	Brian Harris
Music Composition	Rafi Kadishzon
Cast:
SHABTAI / BRUNO	Avraham Plata
BIANCA	Ruth Segal
NINA	Hani Nachmias
BELLA	Tiki Dayan
HENIA	Zaharira Harifai
ELHANAN	Shabtai Conorti
TZVI	Tzvi Pearl
MUNYA	Ilan Dar
LOLA	Shifra Milshtein
ZIGGY	Dov Reizer
BOBEH	Shulamit Adar
TZILA	Ruth Geller
AMATSIA, ALPHONSE	Yehuda Mor
MOTKE	Yossef Carmon
TZIPORA	Hanna rot
AVNER	Aharon Almog
ANGELA	Lesha Rosenberg
ALBERTO	Albert Cohen
ELISHA, STREET SWEEPER	Dror Teplitski
PROSTITUTE	Aliza Rosen
HASSIDIC JEW, PARAMEDIC, GRAVEDIGGER, CLERK	Perri Maroz
HASSIDIC JEW, GRAVEDIGGER	Shmuel Edelman
HASSIDIC JEW, PARAMEDIC	Tamir Rozanis

Act One

The SCHUSTER household, SHABTAI SCHUSTER is walking slowly in his pyjamas with a newspaper in his hand, followed by his wife BIANCA and BELLA and NINA, his daughters.

BELLA: Dad is ill, he’s going to the loo. Four days he’s gone without a pooh, maybe he’ll finally do one soon.

SHABTAI: I’m heavy.

BIANCA: He’s heavy, so heavy.

SHABTAI: Everyone’s cheated me.

BIANCA: You have a wife and two daughters, Shabtai.

SHABTAI: Cheated, I tell you. I’m heavy and cheated.

(Kneels down, BIANCA rushes to lift him up, he waves her away.)

BELLA: Dad’s praying.

SHABTAI: Lord.

(Pause.)

To be successful.

(Pause.)

Amen.

(Gets up, turns to his wife and daughters. BIANCA walks over and gives him a kiss.)

BIANCA: My man.

(BELLA walks over and gives him a kiss.)

BELLA: Courage.

(NINA wraps her hands around his neck.)

NINA: Joie de vivre.

(Hangs onto him.)

BELLA: Dad’s heavy, Nina.

(NINA lets go of him. SHABTAI waves farewell with the hand holding the newspaper.)

SHABTAI: In my youth I used to go. Oh, I went and went. Goodbye everyone. Youth, youth.

(Starts leaving very slowly.)

BIANCA: In his youth he used to go,...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Dedication
• Hanoch Levin: A Short Biographical Note
• Suitcase Packers
• The Lost Women of Troy
• The Labour of Life
• Walkers in the Dark
• Requiem