Saddam Hussein – A Mystery Play
Written and directed by Yonatan Levy
Performed and co-created by Amir Farjoun, Nir Shauloff, Saar Székely, Yonatan Levy
F.I.N.D. #15
Guest Production by HaZira Performance Art Arena (Israel)
In a mystery play, good competes with evil on stage. Saddam Hussein discovers oil and defends it against the rest of the world. In »Saddam Hussein – A Mystery Play« Israeli writer and performer Yonatan Levy conjures up a portrait of the ex-dictator shimmering between adoration and demonization, and distorts and scrutinises it: four Saddam doubles tread the boards in a staging between satire and ritual, in absurd scenes, glorifying-bewildering texts, liturgical chants and ludicrous choreography. Nothing and nobody is spared from ridicule: neither George Bush senior and Junior nor Dick Cheney, Israeli politics, Saddam Hussein – worshipped in blind adulation by his doubles and loyalists – and above all the West’s and the east’s all-conquering greed for oil.
Yonatan Levy (*1974, Montreal) is an Israeli director, actor and playwright. He works in Tel Aviv’s off-theatre scene and is by now internationally well-known. His plays include »Phoenix« (2013) and »A clarifying Talk«, which was invited to the Under the Mountain Festival in Jerusalem. He was awarded the America-Israel Fund Prize for his production of »Mano King of Atlantis« in 2004.
>>> Essay about the production in Pearson's Preview: From Mentos to Mustaches: Yonatan Levy and the Mystery of Saddam Hussein