It’s been 32 years since the first wave of Ethiopian immigration took place in 1984, with the Operation Moses airlift from Sudan.
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| From 'Refugees,' the latest play from Moshe Malka's Ethiopian-Israeli theater, premiering at the Hullageb Festival, December 15-21, 2016 (Courtesy Moshe Malka) |
“The people then were people who had just come
off the plane,” said Moshe Malka, director of the Ethiopian-Israeli
Theater Ensemble, who has directed Ethiopian-themed plays and
productions for nearly 20 years. “Now I work with people who barely know
how to speak Amharic.”
The Ethiopian community is still dealing with a
considerable number of issues, and its members find ways to broadcast
their problems and successes to the larger Israeli population.
Malka’s theater group will launch its latest
production, during the seventh Hullageb Festival in Jerusalem, December
15-21, an annual celebration of Ethiopian music, dance and theater that
showcases visiting and local Ethiopian artists. It’s one of those events
that welcomes outsiders as well as insiders.
“Refugees” is an urban legend of a meeting
between worlds and identities that collapse during a nightmarish night
in Tel Aviv. The play tells the tale of four refugees from Eritrea who
are being chased by the police and find refuge in the home of Avi, a
single Israeli man who is undergoing a heartbreaking development.
It’s a report on the current African refugee
situation in Israeli, blended with the ongoing story of Ethiopian
Israeli Jews and the issues of identity, racism, belonging and
nationality, said Malka.
The script, in Hebrew, Tigris and some
English, is translated to all Hebrew onscreen. There’s a conversation
with Malka and a Q&A after the show, to allow everyone to process
what they’ve just watched.
All of Malka’s plays, including “Refugees,”
are written by him after a process of improvisation with his actors, and
it’s a process that can continue up until the last moments of
rehearsal.
“I’m not Ethiopian, and I look at everything from the outside,” said Malka. “It’s a more universal lens.”
Malka said he likes to mix up identities, to
create “a kind of neutral,” he said. “I like to make something both
clear and unclear, that allows to link with the rest of the world, and
to break down barriers.”
He did an acting workshop and short play with
the first Ethiopians he worked with nearly 17 years ago, and credits his
“strange way of looking at everything” with allowing him to offer an
angle that takes the Ethiopian actors out of their “deep place and do
things that are more sharp and precise.”
“The use of identity in this theater is what
engages us all the time,” said Malka. “What are you — Israeli,
Ethiopian, artist, actor –how do you identify yourself. And that’s
what’s important to the Ethiopian actors now, being Israeli.”
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| AveVa, one of the artists performing at Hullageb, December 15-21, 2016 (Courtesy Maya Baran) |
This year’s Hullageb Festival lineup also
includes a performance from Ethiopian artist Aster Aweke, who’s known as
the Aretha Franklin of Ethiopia, a night of Afro soul with AvevA, and a
long list of other Ethiopian artists.
Performances for the Hullageb Festival, which
is supported by the Confederation House, the Bracha Foundation, the
Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Jerusalem Municipality and
departments of the Foreign Ministry, will take place at the Jerusalem
Theater, the Confederation House, the Leo Model Hall in the Gerard Behar
Theater, the First Station and the Yellow Submarine.
Performances of “Refugees” will be held on December 20, 21, 22, 28, January 3 and January 11. Tickets are available through Bimot and more information can be found on the Confederation House Facebook page.
