Review: WHAT REALLY MATTERS at The Incubator Theatre - Three Insightful and Clever Stories

Have you ever asked yourselves if the way you live your lives is really the way you want to live? Or is it the right way to live?

In this Incubator Theater comedy, written and directed by Eli Haviv, we get to see 3 different stories, 3 pieces of life, that manage to touch some aspects of life that we usually don't stop to wonder about.

In the first story we witness a nice and lonely old man (Gabi Amrani) sitting peacefully in his flat when suddenly a young couple comes in (Yehonatan Porat and Yael Sztulman). At first it seems to the old man that they are just new neighbours that dropped by to say hello. When he realizes that they actually came to take his place in the flat, because they still have their lives ahead of them while he is close to his death, he refuses to play along and clings on to his life.
The couple's casual approach and overly kind behaviour towards their unusual request adds to comic aspect of this scene. While the tragic aspect is quite obvious, Gabi Amrani manages to bring us a very authentic and reliable character that makes the audience feel his pain.

In the second story there are two soldiers inside a tent waiting to go to war the next day. One of them (Yariv Kook) is drinking alcohol and trying to write a poem so he can leave something to remember him by after his death, which he is certain will occur tomorrow in the war. His poem is quite bad but it doesn't matter to him because after a person dies all his poems become good.
The other soldier (Ram Mizrahi) is not willing to accept that their upcoming death is so obvious and insists that he must go to war because someone needs to do it.
A prostitute (Yael Sztulman) hired by the first soldier joins them in the tent after he decided that since his near death is inevitable he should at least enjoy his last hours. While he's already drunk he urges the other soldier to sleep with her at gun point. What he didn't know is that the prostitute's wittiness will change the situation completely.

The third story shows us a middle aged couple celebrating the wife's 50th birthday with a quiet dinner at home. What begins as a calm and casual scene takes a surprising turn when a magician (Yariv Kook/Tom Hagai) arrives after he was hired by the husband (Arik Eshet) to make his wife (Fabiana Meyuhas) enjoy a good old magic act. Little did he know that the magic act they were about to witness will include the magic of introspection his wife is about to go through under the guidance of the magician who shows his psychological and hypnotic skills.

Each and every one of these stories gives us the option to get a profound and insightful look on some issues that each of us has to deal with in our lives.
The clever and intelligent writing alongside the use of bitter humour make these stories touch the audience and allow them to keep thinking about these issues and the way they handle them in their own lives even long after they leave the theatre.

It is an important theatrical event for those of you who are not afraid to let themselves have a deep observation on issues we usually take for granted and don't stop from time to time to think whether what we used to think of as the truth still is.

In the future I would very much like to see a complete play written by Eli Haviv. I'm sure that after creating this brilliant work as 3 short stories he is absolutely ready for writing a full play to be put on stage.

One small thing about Tzavta Theatre that hosted this production:
When it says that the show will start at 20:00 people make plans according to that and to the length of the show. When a theatre decides to start the show at around 20:15, as it happened in this case, it's very disrespectful towards the people in the audience who arrived on time. Even if the theatre notices that some tickets that were booked for this show still haven't been picked up it doesn't mean that people who arrived on time have to suffer because of late-comers.
Moreover, even after the late start of the performance the ushers kept on letting late-comers enter the theatre and take their original seats, even if they were in the middle of a row in a way that interferes other viewers. The late-comers caused a lot of noise after the performance already began, and even more surprisingly: The lights in the audience area were kept on until all the late-comers took their seats.
In every theatre there should be a clear policy regarding how to handle late-comers. Whether to let them in at all or not, and if so, where will they be seated in a quiet way without interferences. And this policy should be applied during every performance.

Play and Director: Eli Haviv
Music: Omer Mor
Lighting Designer: Shachar Vekerzon
Set and Costume Designer: Daniella Mor
Designing Assistant: Tal Tzuriel
Assisting Director: Rotem Blotnick
Production Manager: Eran Fitousi
Magic Training: Eli Schoenfeld

Cast: Gabi Amrani, Arik Eshet, Fabiana Meyuhas, Tom Hagai, Yariv Kook, Ram Mizrahi, Yehonatan Porat, Yael Sztulman

For tickets and furhter information click here.

Photo: Dedi Elias

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