The Play's the Thing

Today was a day of field trips. Instead of our regular morning schedule, we had a truncated first class, then boarded a bus to Har Herzl. While I couldn't tour the cemetery with the rest of the group, I did get to visit the museum with them, and it was a real pleasure. The museum is very modern, with videos and interactive exhibits, and our tour guide was also terrific. I'm pretty certain that I would never have undertaken to learn about Herzl on my own, but the historical and philosophical backdrops to the founding of the State of Israel was actually very engaging and interesting.

Tonight Rina and I attended a play, written by two Israeli playwrights, at the Khan theater. The theater itself is quaint, with a courtyard instead of a lobby, just off of Emek Refa'im. We were a little nervous, as the website's blurb described the play, "The Winners", as something akin to a less successful version of "The Producers". By the time the innocent Russian adoptee was locked in the attic of a whorehouse halfway through the Pesach seder, however, we were sure that the two plays had nothing in common. It was a great piece of work that had the entire audience laughing throughout. The moral of the story, as sung by the entire cast in the big closing number, is that "there's a little bird in my heart, and that bird is a little bit of a whore." I fully endorse this play to anyone and everyone who isn't one of my students or younger cousins.