A Symposium on Hanoch Levin's play, Murder: A Note of Introduction

A SYMPOSIUM ON HANOCH LEVIN'S PLAY, MURDER: A NOTE OF INTRODUCTION Rachel Feldhay Brenner Univeristy ofWisconsin-Madison What is the place of the theater in time of war and violence? To what extent does the theater remain meaningful in a reality overcome by terror and suffering? The symposium investigates these issues while focusing on Murder, an extraordinary play by the noted Israeli playwright, Hanoch Levin. Murder was conceived and performed in 1997 as a response to the exacerbating Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its unstoppable cycles of violence. As the reception ofthe play at the time demonstrated, Murder touched a raw nerve in the Israeli pUblic. As such, it represents an artistic event well worthy of intellectual exploration. The essays included here examine the text of the play and its performance from various angles: they discuss the philosophical~ethical message of Murder, the problematic ofthe staging ofthe play, and its place in Levin's oeuvre. The symposium includes: Staging Murder, an interview with Omri Nitzan (Dan Urian) Murder, Hanoch Levin--the play in translation Four Essays: 1. The Terror of Barbarism and the Return to History: Between the Text and the Performance of Murder by Hanoch Levin (Rachel Feldhay Brenner) 2. Murder as an Instance ofLocal Rhetoric in the Performance of Israeli Drama: A Phenomenological Approach (Dan Kaynar) 3. Narrative without an Answer to the Question "Why?" Hanoch Levin's Murder (Freddie Rokem) 4. The Arab in Hanoch Levin's Works: From The Queen of the Bathtub to Murder (Dan Urian) ...