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‘Easier to say I’m Hitler than I’m Israeli’
Two Israeli performers take their shows to Edinburgh
Iftach Jephthah Ophir is bringing his radical new show Damn Me (to Hell) to Edinburgh Fringe Festival this month.
The premise of the show is that Hitler, who is gay, is at the entrance to Hell dressed in pink, a heart literally worn on his sleeve where a swastika once sat. An audiovisual cabaret, it follows the Fuhrer’s unlikely tale of emotional reckoning: from that final bunker breakfast, through Hell’s gates, via Jesus, a mountain master and Stephan the boyfriend. Billed as a part satirical stand-up, part confessional, cabaret, Iftach wrote the show to intentionally portray Hitler with characteristics that the Fuhrer would have found repugnant.
Iftach, who lives in Tel Aviv, decided to write the play after the break-up of a relationship.
“I felt that I had not behaved well and, as part of a subsequent course of therapy, I examined the notion of forgiveness,” he says.
“If people do something wrong, they should try to make amends and approach the person they have wronged and ask them for forgiveness. Sometimes the victim is open to having a dialogue, other times they refuse to engage.
“This made me think about the wider picture and how in Israel people say about Hitler ‘may his name be erased’ but I thought I would not do that. Instead, I would ridicule and shame Hitler. I would write a show that would try to break him and make him face up to the crimes he committed.
“Antisemitism did not just start with Hitler. The fact that Hitler was able to do what he did is proof of that.
“When I said I was bringing this show to Edinburgh people said to me, do not do it, you are an Israeli, it is not a good idea. But I feel that we should not be censored. If Israelis are not able to perform this is a form of censorship that is no different to the burning of books back in the 1930s.”
This is the fourth year Iftach will be performing at the Edinburgh Festival. As an experienced TV, movie and theatre actor and playwright this one-man show has Iftach playing five characters.
“It says a great deal that it is easier for me to walk through the streets of Edinburgh and say I am a gay Adolf Hitler, than for me to say I am Israeli. That blows my mind.”
Damn Me (To Hell) is at Just The Tonic at Subway until August 22nd. edfringe.com
In Other Words is Israeli performer Maya Shoham’s interactive play about herself. She is going through something – but it’s something she can’t find the words for. So Maya does what any normal person would do in this situation: write a play, take it to the Fringe, and invite an audience to help her invent new words.
The play twists and turns as Maya the playwright gets in the way of Maya the performer (and vice versa), on this increasingly chaotic journey of trying to articulate herself.
In Other Words is at Just the Tonic at The Mash House (The Attic), until 30 August. edfringe.com
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