The Worm — a performance by IBDT and the Little Theater

International Berlin Drama Theatre (Международный берлинский драматический театр)

“The Worm” — an intimate psychological play inspired by the works of Shamai Golan.

The play is set in Israel in the mid-1980s. At the center of the story are a man who experienced war as a child and a woman who has lived beside him for thirty years. One dinner becomes an attempt to finally talk about what it was impossible to discuss for so many years.

She tries to understand the man she loves. He remains silent, unable to find words for what he has endured. Between them are love and resentment, attachment and loneliness, fear and memory. The war ended long ago, but its mark continues to live within him—in his body, actions, relationships, and family.

Once, in order to survive, the protagonist seemed to disappear. But is it possible to return fully to life after that? Can intimacy be preserved when the past repeatedly intrudes on the present? And is it possible, after decades of silence, to learn to hear each other again?

“The Worm” is a play about the consequences of unprocessed trauma, about love confronting the inability to get close to the person one loves, and about an inner war that continues many years after the real one has ended.

This is the story of a man who once died inside—and then lived for a very long time. A story about fear, memory, love, and an attempt to find light where it seems almost impossible.

Concept: Anastasia Weinmar
Playwright and director: Michael Teplicky
Set and costume designer: Oleg Golovko
Music: Anton Varaksin

Cast

Yoel: Alexander Bargman
Nira: Anastasia Weinmar
Odelia: Alla Tsaritsyna