All posts tagged as: theater
Jewish Sign Language and Blind-Deaf theater in Israel
For some reason, deaf Jewish themes have been coming up in conversation recently. Last Shabbat dinner, I met a guy a bit older than me who was scheduled to have a cochlear implant this week. That reminded me of a powerful documentary about “deaf culture” I once saw on PBS called Sound and Fury, which explores the tension between technology and tradition. In a separate conversation, I was reminded of a blind-deaf theater & restaurant in Tel Aviv/Yafo, Israel, called Nalagaat. If you find yourself on that side of the Atlantic, it’s a profoundly beautiful performance. If you brush up on your Hebrew sign language video, maybe you won’t be tongue-tied while trying to order a drink from the deaf bartenders at the café.
Lewis Forever and Ever
I’d like to offer you a special Thursday night outing recommendation. The performance/sibling collective Lewis Forever is in residence for three more weeks at The New Museum, and doing work in progress showings in the theater. The 4-sibling family is full of halfsies - half-Jew, half-Dominican, half-NYC, half-Berlin, but is flawless in their interactions as a whole. Last week was their first evening, and I walked out of the theater with a huge grin, full belly, and a lot to continue to chew on. They slyly played with the audience’s expectations about their family and the collective notion of family, fed us starving artist in berlin specialties, and got the entire audience dancing and throwing our arms in the air to blasting Animal Collective. They’ve got pitch-perfect style, hair and musical sensibilities, and somehow make you feel part of this insanely intelligent and slightly perplexing family. Go see them, and let me know what they are up to this week.