A political play shown here last night at the Khan Theater brought the real drama down to the audience. Some spectators, angered by the contents of the play, walked out in the middle, protesting they were dragged into a political assembly under the false pretense that it was theater.
The play, “One City-Something About Jerusalem,” written by journalists Dan Margalit and Mati Golan, deals with current problems in Jerusalem and is based on interviews with various Jerusalem citizens.
Among the protestors were the noted archaeologist and former Chief of Staff, Prof. Yigael Yadin and the extreme rightist Yisrael Eldad who yelled, “This is not a play, this is a political gathering.” The two left the hall while one of the actors cited a monologue by a new immigrant from South America saying that the improvement in the status of the Arabs in the city did not solve their political problems and if it were not suicide he would even help the Arabs in their terrorist activities.
Yadin explained that when he bought the tickets he thought the play would really deal with Jerusalem. “At the second part of the show I simply felt I was cheated,” he said. “Instead of showing theater they mixed in all kinds of political monologues.” Only about half the audience stayed to the end of the show. The show’s director, Michel Alfreds, said the play was not only about Jerusalem but about Israeli problems in general.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
