Soviet television viewers were treated Monday night to footage of Israel’s national theater. Habimah, performing at a Moscow theater for the first time since the Russian Revolution.
The famous company is on a tour of the Soviet Union, where it originated more than 70 years ago.
But Israeli audiences were denied a glimpse of Habimah’s historic return to its roots.
Elaborate plans by the Israel Broadcast Authority for a special program from the Soviet capital via satellite failed to materialize.
The Israeli television journalists and technicians sent to prepare it were stuck in Vienna on opening night because their Soviet visas had not arrived.
Even if the visas had been at hand, the broadcast was problematic.
The television workers union instructed its members before they left for Moscow to hold up transmission pending the settlement of a wage dispute and the payment of salary increases promised months ago.
Soviet television broadcast excerpts from “Sunset,” one of the two plays Habimah is presenting to Soviet audiences. It was followed by an interview with one of the actors.
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