‘CAUSE YOU GOT TO HAVE FRIENDS
Israeli playwright Anat Gov’s Best Friends comes to the 14th Street Y with an impressive history. Best Friends is the longest-running comedy in Israel and winner of the prestigious Israel National Theater Award for Best Comedy in 1999. It also had a sold-out run at Rattlestick Theater. Now, directed by Hamutal Poslinsky-Shehroy, it has been brought to the Y’s Israeli Artists Projects’ month-long celebration of Israeli Arts and Culture, the STAV Festival.
Maia Karo (Lelly), Adi Kozlovsky (Tirza), Karin Hershkovitz Kochavi (sophie)
Best Friends tells the story of the decade’s long friendship of three Israeli women, Sophie, Tirza, and Lelly, who met in their high school bathroom in the late 1960s. The story is told by way of two timelines.
Maya Shoham (Young Lelly), Addi Gefen (Young Tirza), Yael Shavitt (Young Sophie)
One timeline features Maya Shoham as Young Lelly, Yael Shavitt as Young Sophie and Addi Gefen as Young Tirza. The other focuses on the girls after they have grown up: Karlin Hershkovitz Kochavi as Sophie, Maio Karo as Lelly and Adi Kozlovsky as Tirza.
Yael Shavitt (Young Sophie), Maya Shoham (Young Lelly), Addi Gefen (Young Tirza),
Karin Hershkovitz Kochavi (sophie), Maia Karo (Lelly), Adi Kozlovsky (Tirza)
The timeline of the women’s youth is filled with action. We see them at the beach and in Paris, giving birth and nursing babies. Their characters emerge. Sophie is confident and aggressive. Tirza is more timid. Lelly does not bloom. The three actresses convey the truth of adolescence: it’s filled with uncertainty and fear, as well as hope and enthusiasm.
Yael Shavitt (Young Sophie), Maya Shoham (Young Lelly), Addi Gefen (Young Tirza)
The other timeline focuses on the three women twenty years later as they approach middle age. Tirza has become a successful author and television host. Sophie has several children by different fathers. Lelly, a scholar who has remained unmarried, attempts to bring the feuding Sophie and Tirza together by telling them she has news that’s a matter of life or death. The resulting scene is filled with intense conversations but little action.
Karin Hershkovitz Kochavi (sophie), Maia Karo (Lelly), Adi Kozlovsky (Tirza)
The story becomes a little surreal when the ladies’ older and younger selves appear onstage. Although they never really interact, as the younger selves hover over their older incarnations we realize that, as Wordsworth put it, “The child is father of the man.”
Maya Shoham (Young Lelly), Maia Karo (Lelly)
The down and dirty talk of the women and the innocence and yearnings of the young girls make the play both lively and relevant. But ultimately, their adult complaints are petty, their reconciliations are superficial and their lives are sad. Although much of Best Friends is truly funny, the play is not really a comedy. It is rather a comment on how limited many women’s lives are, whether they become wealthy and famous or not.
photos courtesy of the production
Best Friends
ISRAELI ARTISTS PROJECT and STRIPE GUM PRODUCTIONS
14Y Theater at 14th St. Y, 344 East 14th St (at First Ave.)
performances alternate in English and Hebrew
running time: 90 minutes
ends on October 28, 2023
for tickets ($25-$50), visit STAV.
Performances in English:
Friday, October 13 at 7:00 pm
Sunday, October 22 at 1:00 pm
Monday, October 23 at 7:00 pm
Monday, October 25 at 7:00 pm
Performances in Hebrew:
Thursday, October 12 at 7:00 pm
Friday, October 20 at 7:00 pm
Saturday, October 21 at 9:00pm
Thursday, October 26 at 7:00 pm
Friday, October 27 at 7:00 pm
Saturday, October 28 at 7:00 pm
