Play it again, Sam

I went to the theatre the other night. To some of my readers, this may seem an everyday, almost mundane, thing to do, but as far as I can recall, I don't think that I've been once to the theatre in the last 34 years, ever since I emigrated... probably something to do with the language (and why should I go to see Shakespeare translated into Hebrew?).

So what dragged me out on a cold and windy (but thankfully not rainy) night? My old friend, Woody Allen's first play, "Play it again, Sam". As I related several years ago, this is probably my favourite film and I traveled many miles in order to see it. What I didn't write in that blog entry was that I also saw the play from which the film was derived - in a theatre in Hampstead, early 1978. I think that it was a student company that put on the play so one did not expect much.

Anyway, the play has been translated into Hebrew and is now being presented on the stages of Israel, courtesy of the Beer Sheva theatre company. The character of Alan Felix (aka Woody Allen) is played by either Guri Alfi or Eidan Alterman, both top Israeli comedians. The show which I saw had Guri Alfi, who is definitely more visible these days than Alterman, appearing twice a week on television; he seems a very good match for Allen.

Everything was excellent: the play, of course (the translation was fine and covered maybe 90% of the film), the set, the acting and especially the direction. I had wondered how they would deal with Bogart and Nancy (the ex-wife) coming in and out of the play; there were three video screens placed stage left, stage right and stage rear upon which Bogart appeared and performed his dialogs with perfect timing. Nancy appeared sometimes on the screens and sometimes in the flesh.

The actress who played Nancy also played several of the dates, most noticeably Sharon. This scene was played out almost identically to the film (although the track medal which Woody Allen displayed ostentatiously was replaced by a similar medal for 10km speed walking), including throwing the record across the room. This scene had an addition to the dialogue: the record (not played) was by Thelonious Monk, and Alfi got many laughs by pronouncing this name as unclearly as possible (this might be one of his personal party pieces). We had the Jackson Pollock dialogue in the museum complete, although they missed the joke at the end by the girl walking off without looking at Alfi after he asks what she's doing on Friday night (on Saturday night, she's committing suicide).

On stage was a pianist who accompanied the acting, along with playing the odd song (especially, of course, "As time goes by"). There was a joke possibly taken from Randy Newman in his recording of the song 'Shame' in which he starts talking to the background singers (who sing 'Shame') - "could you please keep quiet". Alfi also talks at one point to the pianist, asking him to be more quiet.

What surprised me the most was how they managed to encompass the variety of styles presented in the film - especially the third act - on one stage in a continuous performance. Indeed, very little was missed out; the entire Julie sequence when Alan, Dick and Linda go to the beach house for the weekend was unsurprisingly cut, but made very little difference.

The above picture shows Guri Alfi as Alan Felix and Efrat Boimold as Linda Christie. I should point out that Boimold didn't appear at the show we attended; her part was played by Yael Grobglass, who is both taller and slimmer than Boimold (her picture appears below).

If you get the chance, go and see this show.