by
Motti Lerner
Saltpillar Theatre
at St Martins Theatre
until July 30, 2000
Reviewer: Kate
Herbert
The fate of Jews in
exile is well documented. Many sought a safe haven and a new home during or
after World War Two. According to Israeli playwright, Motti Lerner's Exile in
Jerusalem, European Jews who found themselves in Palestine were often treated
as aliens in a land called their Homeland.
The dreadful and ironic truth for Werner Hermann (Daniel
Dinnen) is that he feel more a German than a Jew. He identifies with his
birthplace, his oppressor's nation, not with his cultural and religious group,
the Jews.
Else is ostracised for writing her poems in German, her
first language, but also the language of the murderous Hitler. Arriving in
Palestine in her 70's, she spoke no Hebrew. The artist is alienated in every
culture in the end.
Werner harshly describes people in the streets of Jerusalem
as "narrow-minded Jews". There is a double edge of racial prejudice
visible in this play; the European and Levantine Jews are at loggerheads.
The story is based on the six years spent in Palestine by
Else Lasker- Shüler, a German poet, from 1939 to her death in 1945. There she
re-encounters a fellow Berliner, Werner,
a younger academic, critic and fan of her poetry. He left his Aryan wife and
two daughters in Berlin.
Else (Donna Cohen) is a bright, colourful gipsy creature who
lives in a fuzzy fantasy world between reality and fiction. She is demented but
writes tiny jewel-like poems. However, these do not translate well into
English.
The play raises some intelligent and challenging issues
about race and cultural identity but it is inclined to be repetitive and
too long. Danny Gesundheit's direction
is pedestrian, slowing the pace with unnecessarily long and complicated scene
transitions, too much naturalistic detail. Tightening it up could take off 30
minutes.
Dinnen is charming and eccentric as Werner and finds a range
of moods and colour in an essentially dull character. Cohen makes a good
attempt at Else but never fully inhabits the character.
Songs from the Yiddish language as well as those of Kurt
Weill and Bertolt Brecht are injected into the play but could have been more
effectively integrated to enhance scene changes.
By Kate Herbert
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