Play No. 1 – "The Rebels" – A New Israeli Play by Amnon Levy

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“The Rebels” – A new Israeli play by Amnon Levy

In Mea Shearim, a group of women decides to rebel against the community’s leadership in order to save one of their friends from an unhappy and abusive marriage. They use the only ancient and effective weapon at their disposal: abstaining from their husbands. They refuse to visit the mikveh and begin a campaign of abstinence from marital relations until their friend is freed from the bonds of her marriage.

“The Rebels” is a moving and humorous drama by Amnon Levy, presenting a women’s struggle for equality in the most unexpected setting. The women of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood decide that the value of mutual assistance to a woman in distress outweighs even the commandment to “be fruitful and multiply.” They bravely confront the men, suffer ostracism and persecution, and nevertheless continue their struggle despite the heavy price.

Levy, who wrote “Shayndele”—one of the great successes of Israeli theater—returns to the ultra-Orthodox woman in Mea Shearim and documents her struggle for independence.

Levy drew inspiration for the play from a similar campaign of abstinence from marital relations that recently took place in Satmar, New York, demanding the release of an agunah. The campaign succeeded and astonished the ultra-Orthodox world.

Cast: Shlomo Bar-Aba, Rona-Lee Shim’on, Henry David, Tali Sharon, Nati Kluger, Noa Rabinovich, Meir Toldano, Gil Weiss
Director: Yehezkel Lazarov
Playwright: Amnon Levy