Village (K’far) has a timeless quality to it, which is exactly why this renewed production still attracts many audiences. Yossi, played brilliantly by the talented Israel (Sasha) Demidov, is a not-so-smart boy, who meddles in everybody’s affairs. As it’s always the case in theatre, the fool’s job is to expose the truth about everything he experience. Yossi unfolds both the truths about the lives of the people surrounding him in the village, as well as the national issues happening in Israel in the 1940s.
K’far, in Hebrew, is more than just a village. It feels like the residents interact with each other more as an extended family. The play opens in the village’s graveyard where everybody is buried next to each other, still maintaining their closeness. Through Yossi’s eyes, we get to experience the day-to-day interactions and connections, desires and affairs.
The world is a stage, and the stage is the world of the village. From the public spaces where all is invited to watch a film together to the fields and the residents’ homes. The inner stage is a circular moving platform that creates movement and spaciousness. The bundles of grain stalks that cover the stage add the unique agricultural aspect of life in a small village in Israel in those days, that you can almost feel and smell.
Yossi’s brutal honesty, naïveté, warmth, and affection are reflected in the relationships he has with humans and animals alike. He asks his goat-friend a question, which is in the heart of the story: Ditza, where’s it easier to get to, tomorrow or yesterday? It seems that in today’s reality, Yossi’s question is still relevant, maybe more than ever, and it is upon us to examine our lives and ponder over it.
Henry David, who is also known for his role in the successful television series A Touch Away among others, plays the role of Ami, Yossi’s beloved brother, who dies as a soldier in Israel’s Independence War.
Yevgeny Arye, the director of Village, creates a charming universe, a timeless time capsule that has an absolute classic magic to it.