אבשלום // 13 במאי

A young Israeli couple sets out for a camping trip. They find themselves in distress over a
lack of water and encounter two young Arabs smoking a hookah. The situation feels familiar,
mundane, and seemingly innocent—yet it remains trapped within stereotype, bound to the
fate of this land, caught in a cycle of self-perpetuating myths.
Avshalom is a play about our story here, in this place. Its attention to detail is forensic.
Nothing is innocent: an object, a word, a sound, timing, a facial expression or a glance, all
become symbols of the larger story, each carrying that strong, familiar borderline feeling
that “something bad is about to happen.”
Maya Rachel Schiff creates a spectacle of innocent mistakes and deliberate misdirections,
wrapped in thick layers of embarrassment. Through hesitant, everyday play, and by working
with the clichés and stereotypes that make up Israeli identity, she touches the essential
human core of the fear of the “other”. The result is a gaze filled with both struggle and
compassion toward the people of this land.

Maya is a theatre, performance, dance, and video creator and performer. Her works have
been presented at the Manofim Festival, the Jerusalem Arts Festival, the International
Student Film Festival, Barbur Gallery, Pyramid Gallery, and more. She is a graduate of the
School of Visual Theatre. The performance began as her final project at the School of Visual
Theatre, and was further developed over the past year in a production by HaZira Theatre
with the support of Mifal HaPais’s debut productions program.

Writer, creator and performance: Maya Rachel schiff |  Preformers and co creators: Yzhar
Adler, Tal galon, Mohammad Abu Sara | Artistic accompaniment: Nir Shauloff and Maya
Levy | Sound Design, Design and pigeon Development: Marco Tomasin Milevski | Lighting
and stage design: Oded komemi | Images: Yelena