Slopes

A new Israeli play by Amnon Levy

In Mea Shearim, a group of women decides to rebel against the community leadership in order to save one of their number from an unhappy and abusive marriage.

They use the only ancient and effective weapon at their disposal: withholding themselves from their husbands. They refuse to go to the mikveh and begin a campaign of abstinence from marital relations until their friend is released from the bonds of her marriage.

The Rebels is a moving and funny 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 aid for 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 draws 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 there succeeded and stunned the ultra-Orthodox world.

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

Photo: PR courtesy of the production