Adapted byZviSaharandOdedLittman Set andcostumedesignbyAyaZaiger Based on stories by Etgar Keret The Cameri Theatre of Tel-Aviv of Theatre Cameri The

#BAMNextWave LOCATION: RUN TIME: DATES: Lighting designbyOferLaufer Dramaturgy byOdedLittman

Suddenly Directed by Zvi Sahar, Music byGaiSherf PuppetCinema 1hr, nointermission BAM Fisher (Fishman Space) DEC 6—9at7:30pm

Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo, President Katy Clark, Vice ChairmanoftheBoard William I.Campbell, Chairman oftheBoard Adam E.Max, Brooklyn AcademyofMusic The Shubert Foundation,The Shubert Inc. The SHSFoundation The Francena T. Harrison The AchelisandBodmanFoundation provided by: for theateratBAM Major support Season Sponsor: Foundation Trust BAM Fisher Suddenly NY Premiere Cast Based on stories by Etgar Keret Nadav Assulin In Hebrew with English titles Simcha Barbiro Yuval Segal Director Neta Plotnik Zvi Sahar, PuppetCinema Gony Paz, Puppeteer Ilya Kreines, Cinematographer Adaptation Dani Halifa, Cinematographer Zvi Sahar and Oded Littman

Production manager Dramaturgy Nili Beeri Oded Littman

Technical coordinator Set and Costume design/ Yoav Weiss Visual development Aya Zaiger Stage manager Idan Tamano Lighting design Ofer Laufer Lighting operator Yoav Gindi Music

Gai Sherf Sound operator Naor Izsak Sound effects

Kobe Shmueli Online video director/operator Ohad Levitan Puppet design Gili Kozin Ulmar Translation of the stories Yana Malishev Miriam Shlesinger Amira Pinkas

Translation of the story “What, of this Puppetry director Goldfish, Would You Wish?” Gony Paz Nathan Englander Associate director Title editing Danny Levy Tami Rubin, Omer Strass Assistant director International tours PuppetCinema Yoel Rozenkier as is presenting arts Gal Canetti, Dalit Itai About Suddenly

Suddenly development was supported A writer is sitting alone amid the heap by Asylum Small grant and Gettysburg of rubble that was once his room, his College Research and Development life. Suddenly, a knock on the door: Grant (for designer Eric Berninghausen). three despairing people come up to him in their search for solace and demand Suddenly was developed in part by the that he does what he has decided never Visiting Artist program of Institute, to do again—tell a story. Left with no Washington, DC; the Clarice Smith choice, the writer takes them into his Performing Arts Center; and the Theater, narrative world, where he hopes they Dance, and Performance Studies and will understand the price he pays for the the Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Stud- stories they want to hear. ies at the University of Maryland.

With the following collaborators: Leslie Strongwater (Dramaturgy and Production), Eric Berninghausen (Designer), Mark Costello (Cinematog- rapher, lighting, and projection), Tyler Gunther (Puppet Designer), Chelsey McLaughlin (Puppeteer), and Nitsan Scharf (Puppeteer).

With the support of the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York. The Cameri’s productions have won more than 120 awards, including the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Special Contribution to Society and the State of Who’s Israel. The theater received an honorary fellowship from University for its singular contribution to Israeli culture, for its rich repertoire, and for nurturing excellence Who in all aspects of theatrical performance. The Cameri Theater is supported by the The Cameri Theatre of Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Tel Aviv Tel Aviv Municipality.

The Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv, founded The North American Tour is made possible in 1944, is the largest theater in Israel, with support of Israel’s Office of Cultural staging up to 12 new productions annually Affairs in North America and Mifal Hapais. along with 20 productions in repertoire. The Cameri has produced some 500 productions Shmulik Ifrah, General Director on its stages, with more than 2,000 Omri Nitzan, Artistic Director performances every year. Ofer Shahal, Chairman of the Board Haviva Hadar, Deputy Director Finance The company includes 80 of Israel’s Sigal Cohen, Director International Relations finest actors, and its plays are directed by Department celebrated directors from Israel and abroad. The theater’s productions are performed in Flights five auditoriums as well as on tour. This is Signal Tours, Alex Morison not the first visit to BAM, and the Cameri Theatre has performed at leading theaters SHMULIK IFRAH and festivals worldwide, including the General Director, The Cameri Theatre Lincoln Center Festival in NY, Barbican in London, Hannover Expo, Washington Shmulik Ifrah, general director of the Shakespeare Festival at Kennedy Center, Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and a Gdansk Shakespeare Festival, National graduate of the Beit Zvi Performing Arts Center for the Performing Arts (The Egg) in School, is a trained actor, teacher, director, Beijing, and Moscow Theater of Nations, and independent producer. Ifrah was until and more than 100 international tours with recently the director general and artistic other productions. Forthcoming tours are director of the Be’er Sheva Municipal planned to Europe, North America, and Theater. Ifrah led a substantive change at Australia. the theater, the city, and the Negev Regional Council by transfer of budgets for socio- The Cameri’s yearly international theater cultural activities for the residents of Be’er festival recently included companies such Sheva and the Negev Regional Council. as the Berliner Ensemble (Robert Wilson’s Ifrah is also the founder and director of the The Threepenny Opera and Arturo Ui), the Be’er Sheva Children and Youth Theatre Volksbühne, the Schaubühne, Deutsches which is the first theater of its kind in the Theater (Berlin), National Theater of Negev. Its entire work is dedicated to the Norway, National Theater of the Czech expansion of cultural knowledge and activity Republic, the Public Theater, National for the benefit of the future generations of Theater of China, Shakespeare’s Globe, and the theater, in particular, and the city of more than 70 other theaters worldwide. Be’er Sheva and the Negev in general. Ifrah also founded and managed the Goodman The Creative Team School for Play in the Negev. This is the first drama school established in the Negev, and ETGAR KERET within a relatively short period of time, it has Author become one of the leading drama schools in Israel, with increasing numbers of graduates Born in Ramat Gan in 1967, Etgar Keret’s and teachers among the best performing books have been published in more than professionals in Israel. Every year, there 40 languages. His writing has appeared in are nearly 20 graduates who successfully The New York Times, Le Monde, The New move on to stages in all active theaters, Yorker, The Guardian, The Paris Review, cinema, and television screens in Israel. and Zoetrope: All Story. Over 60 short movies have been based on his stories. OMRI NITZAN Keret resides in Tel Aviv and lectures at Artistic Director, The Cameri Theatre Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He has received the Book Publishers Association’s Omri Nitzan is himself a prodigious Platinum Prize several times, the Prime director in both theater and opera. Nitzan Minister’s Prize (1996), the Ministry has accumulated many prizes for his of Culture’s Cinema Prize, the Jewish productions in classical and contemporary Quarterly Wingate Prize (UK, 2008), the St. drama. Among his many honors, he is a Petersburg Public Library’s Foreign Favorite five time winner of the Israel Theatre Prize Award (2010), and the Newman Prize for Director of the Year and five-time winner (2012). In 2007, Keret and Shira Geffen of the Israeli Theatre Prize for Production won the Cannes Film Festival’s Camera d’Or of the Year. Nitzan has directed operas for Award for their movie Jellyfish, and the Best the Israel Opera, in Antwerp, and in Tokyo, Director Award of the French Artists and as well as guest performances with Opera Writers’ Guild. In 2010, Keret was honored of Rome, Deutsches Opera Berlin, and the in France with the decoration of Chevalier de Opera Festival in Wiesbaden, Germany, l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Keret’s latest among others. book, The Seven Good Years, was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best biographies and memoirs of 2015. Keret was the winner of the 2016 Charles Bronfman Prize in recognition of his work imparting an inspiring Jewish humanitarian vision.

ZVI SAHAR Director/Adaptation

Zvi Sahar holds a BA (cum laude) from the department of theater at the University of Haifa (2010) and is also a graduate of the Yoram Loewenstein Performing Arts Studio (2006). He has won grants from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Jim Henson Foundation.

Sahar attended Puppet Lab in New York (2011), where he developed the language of PuppetCinema, a theater stage language combining puppets and closed circuit video. He was a guest lecturer at the University Hazira Performance Art Arena. Alongside his of Maryland school of theater, dance, and work as a creator he gives various workshops performance studies (2016). He directed and courses for youth, students, and young the Hazira Performance Art Arena produc- creators, and also practices therapy. tion of The Road to Ein Harod (Salt of the Earth, 2014 Next Wave) in Berlin, Croatia, AYA ZAIGER and Poland; Planet Egg, a miniature puppet Set & Costume designer theater performance (Hong Kong National Festival, festivals in Denmark, Italy, Estonia, Aya Zaiger, artist and designer, specializes Czechoslovakia, and around the US); and in developing visual concepts as an art, set, Gulliver at Hazira Performance Art Arena and costume designer. Zaiger holds a BA in Jerusalem (premiere at the International (cum laude) in set and costume design from Festival of Puppet Theatre in Jerusalem, Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, August 2017). and an MA in art studies from Bezalel As an actor Sahar has performed with Academy of Arts and Design. She is currently director Rina Yerushalmi’s Itim Ensemble participating in The Road to Ein Harod (di- in Three Sisters, A Midsummer Night’s rected by Zvi Sahar) onstage as a performer Dream, and Witchcraft (directed by Yael and photographer, and offstage as a designer Ronen); and with Be’er Sheva Theatre in and member of the production development The Count of Monte Cristo, A Comedy of team. Her first solo exhibitionTo Infinity Errors, The Seagull, and The Office. Together was mounted in April 2015 at Ramat Gan with director Oded Littman he adapted and Museum of Israeli Art. She is currently work- performed in Richard III at Tmu-na Theatre ing on an independent video art project. She and Tonight: Oedipus at Hasimta Theatre. lives and works in Tel Aviv. He is the father of Aya and Ella and Dafna’s best friend. OFER LAUFER Lighting designer ODED LITTMAN Adaptation/Dramaturgy Ofer Laufer graduated from HIT-Holon Insti- tute of Technology, department of industrial Director, dramaturg, and theater teacher, design. He has created designs and lighting Oded Littman holds a BA in directing from objects for many artists, including Uri Shafir Kibbutzim College of Education, an MA in (Somewhere in the Now); Ido Feder (Wigit); theater and performance from Bern Uni- Guy Biran (Book of Joshua, The General versity of the Arts (HKB), and an MA is and the Sea, Nefilim); Zvi Sahar (Gulliver); psychodrama therapy. He has created a Mark Eliyahu (Mekudeshet Festival); Tami number of independent productions in Israel, Leibovitz; CutOutClub; Jane Bordeaux, and including Richard III at Tmu-na Theatre others. His light installations include the and Tonight: Oedipus at Hasimta Theatre. Hedim Festival 2016 and Nightlight Festival From 2010—14 he lived in Switzerland 2016. Other lighting designs include where he worked as a director, dramaturg, Uri Shafir and Ido Feder Curtain( Up, 2015); and performer in various theaters, including Nava Frenkel (Learning Songs at the Israel the Bern Municipal Theatre, Dampfzentrale Festival, 2015; Talia Beck (W); Anat Danieli Center for Contemporary Dance in Bern, (Ana Vagana); and others. and various fringe venues around Switzer- land. He was also the regular dramaturg for GAI SHERF choreographer and performer Emma Murray Music and supervised and mentored MA student projects in the performing arts. He recently Gai Sherf is an original music and sound returned to Israel and currently works as a creator for theater and dance. He is a dramaturg and co-creator in various produc- member of the Hummingbird ensemble, the tions, including The Road to Ein Harod at Flora Trio, and various musical ensembles past and present. Plays and performances Cast for which he created the music include The

Road to Ein Harod at Hazira Performance NADAV ASSULIN Art Arena; W and Botanica by choreogra- pher Talia Beck; Savannah, Gulliver, and Nadav Assulin, born in Jerusalem in 1971, Terminal by Amit Drori; Josefina by Josef is a graduate of the Jerusalem Arts High Sprinzak; All the Flowers Await You, a musi- School, served in the IDF Theater Unit, and cal performance; and others. Schmetterling, graduated from Nissan Nativ Acting Studio. a music/theater performance based on an He started his career at the Cameri Theatre original instrument he invented, won the in 1997. Among the theater productions in Akko Festival of Alternative Theatre Award which he has performed are Twelfth Night, in 2005. He graduated from the School of Murder, Petra, Mr. Wolf, Match Making, Visual Theatre in Jerusalem, where he has An Enemy of the People, Cabaret Levin, been teaching for six years. Recital, Singles Popper, Gorodish, The Ke-

tubah, , Sallah Shabati, The Servant KOBE SHMUELI of Two Masters, A Comedy of Errors (for Sound effects his role of silversmith he was nominated for the Israeli theater award as the actor of the Kobe Shmueli studied at Rimon School of year), On the Run, Requiem, Rendezvous Jazz and Contemporary Music, and sound Hotel, As You Like It, The Commissioner of engineering at Sapir Academic College. He the Human Resources, Shira (Agnon), and has played saxophone and keyboards in A Child of My Own (Hagit Rachabi). He has numerous ensembles and currently engages also directed numerous plays at the Nissan mainly in musical production, composi- Nativ Studio Theater and the IDF. tion, and recording in his studio in Jaffa.

His work includes the soundtrack (music, SIMCHA BARBIRO effects, and foley) for Planet Egg, and the sound arrangement and recording for Salt of Simcha Barbiro graduated from Beit Zvi the Earth (2014 Next Wave), in addition to School of Performing Arts in 1991 where writing music and composing soundtracks he won the Zvi Kalir Prize for excellence. for films. Among the many productions in which he has performed are: Here Comes Elijah DANNY LEVY (Akko Festival of Alternative Theatre); Dot Associate director and Anton, Arsenic and Old Lace, A Winter Festival, Good Guys, King of the Jews, Cry Danny Levy holds a BA in theater the Beloved Country, Melinki, Three Sisters, directing and education from Kibbutzim The Good Soldier Svejk, Jaffar in Nasr College of Education, and an MA from the e-Din, Marco/Rabbi Aharon Vistoso in interdisciplinary program in the arts at Tel Bustan Sepharadi, and Winnie in The Aviv University. He adapted and directed Odd Couple (); The Lower Exercise for Beginners of 25 and Over Depths, Pal Joey, Feste in Twelfth Night, as part of his graduation project. He was Lord Hastings in King Richard III (Hasifriya assistant director on the Jerusalem Khan Theatre); The Blue Angel, Pantalone in Theatre production of Man Equals Man, The Servant of Two Masters (Be’er Sheva and the Cameri Theatre production of On Theatre); Yvonne Princess of Burgundy, the Grill. He served as artistic advisor for Chico in The Dog’s Will (Jerusalem Khan Pinter First Floor at the Rega Ehad Festival Theatre:); Benny Southstreet in Guys and and created Begedadam at the Creating a Dolls (Beit Lessin Theatre); Lice, The Wom- Place Festival. an Before Me (Tmu-na Theatre); Li Ho’s Jewelry Box (Tzavta Theatre); Weisskopf in Ghetto (Hebrew Theatre); Theatre Games Show (Orna Porat Theatre for Children and as European Capital of Culture 2015. He Youth); and Thomas Mowbray/Gaoler in won the Best of Russia photography compe- King Richard II, Lord Hastings in King Rich- tition in 2012 and as part of the award he ard III, Herr Morschel/Lauterbach/Jenke/ participated in a touring exhibition in Russia Nurse in Little Man, What Now?, Lennox and Europe. Additional photographs and in Macbeth, Card player/Montfleury/Monk/ illustrations have been published on various Cadet/Sister Claire in Cyrano de Bergerac, media channels: Walla, Ynet, Eretz Acheret, Kosich in Ivanov, Tiger Brown in The Three- and others. His work has also been shown penny Opera, Beck in Mephisto, Rummel in the art exhibitions La Culture, Winter in The Pillars of Society, and Inspector in Time, Creator’s Line, and others. The Human Resources Manager (Cameri Theatre). His work in cinema and television GONY PAZ includes The Hard Core, Sport Theatre, Emergency Room, Murder at the Dead Gony Paz, interdisciplinary creator, Sea, Zap to One, Hedgehogs, HaNephilim, performer, puppeteer, and tap dancer, The Island, La La Land, Naor’s Friends, graduated from the Jerusalem School of Gary Mandelbaum, Polishuk, Ron, Ruling Visual Theatre and won the Jerusalem Family, and Celebrations. He produced and Foundation Prize for Excellence. She also collaborated on Classic Duets and Songs graduated from the Holon School of the from Musicals, and wrote and collaborated Art of Puppetry and the School of Medical on the Another Matter radio show and the Clowning, and in the past 10 years she has satirical Breakfast with Freddy. He also puppeteered and done voiceovers in a wide does voiceovers for television and cinema. range of productions and television shows for children and adults. These include Little DANI HALIFA Monsters, Red and Dvir, Sesame Street, and Adventures of a Pale Blue Donkey. Dani Halifa graduated from the Jerusalem Her work in opera includes Maesa Pedro’s School of Visual Theatre in 2016. For the Puppet Show and The Empress’ Feet. She last four years she has produced The Op- appeared in Yellow Curtains for Mario, What posite of Alive, a performance by Michal Happened to My Voice?, and Challenging Vaknin. She took part in the Jerusalem Death. She recently created a performance Season of Culture in 2014—16 and won titled You’re Not to Blame performed at the Jerusalem Mayor’s Prize for directing Tmu-na Festival in 2016 and the children’s What’s All the Noise? She has created three play Night Journey with Michal Ben-Anat, visual performances at the Tower of David. which was performed by the Train Theatre at the 2016 Jerusalem International Puppet ILYA KREINES Theatre Festival.

Ilya Kreines, illustrator, painter, graphic NETA PLOTNIK designer, cinema, and stills photographer, is a graduate of Bezalel Academy of Arts Neta Plotnik did her military service in IDF and Design Visual Communication Depart- Theatre and studied at the Nissan Nativ ment and a workshop on documentary Acting Studio in Tel Aviv, where she was filmmaking with Eldad Rafaeli. He was awarded two grants for excellence. Her work director of photography for the filmsI Clown in cinema includes Maya (a film by Michal You, Child’s Play, Daria, and Noam. He Bat-Adam), and in television, Loving Anna illustrated Tauride Garden for Samokat Pub- and Tel Aviviot on Channel 10, Danny Hol- lishing House, Moscow, in 2014, and has lywood on Yes TV, and School for Witches illustrated and published three other books. on Logi. Theater credits include A Midsum- The book Back and Forth was exhibited in mer Night’s Dream (Tmu-na Theatre), and Pilsen as part of the events for Pilsen Mekubalin Umehadkim (Kibbutz Theatre, winner of the Children’s and Youth Actor the actor and the audience, and together of the Year Award for her leading role). Her with Oded Littman, created independent previous work with the Cameri Theatre in- productions in which we integrated cludes Orli in Meagre Fish, Miki in The New elements of closed-circuit video (Richard III, Criminals, Victoire in Hotel Rendezvous, and Tmu-na Theater). Phoebe in As You Like It. Planet Egg YUVAL SEGAL One evening I was having dinner at my Yuval Segal was born in Tel Aviv and parents’ house. We ate eggs, while my graduated from the New Actors Workshop father fixed an old radio. Suddenly, my egg in New York under the tutelage of director seemed to me like the ground of a planet Mike Nichols. He began his acting career and the particles my father had dismantled as a child at Beit Lessin Theatre in Marvin’s like its tiny inhabitants. We soldered some Room, Conversations with My Father, and electronic components, took a black canvas A Letter to Noa. In New York he performed backdrop from my mom’s studio, and with with the Third Premise Theater Company a camera lens aimed at plate height we in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead created a picture from a science fiction and directed and acted with the Chalk Circle movie—intergalactic life. This is how Theater Company in Virtual Reality and Planet Egg was born (co-director, Michal Nevermore—An Evening with Poe. In cin- Vaknin), the first production in the style ema he performed in Or and Nerds Club— of PuppetCinema. Only then I still did not The Movie, and on television in The Paja- know I would call this my style. mas, HaHafranim, Comeback, Our Town, Dan and Muesli, The Eighties, Friendship, After a while I took part in the PUPPET and Sabri Maranan. He was screenwriter for LAB in New York (St. Ann’s Warehouse), The Pajamas, Alifim, Sabri Maranan, and where artists from different aesthetics meet HaNefilim, and he has done voiceovers for for a year and receive training and artistic many shows and animated films, including accompaniment to develop a style and a Sanjay in Sanjay and Craig, Miss Piggy and show to be presented at the festival at the Fozzie Bear in The Muppet Show, and the end of the year. After the debut of Planet Egg, lead role in Cars 3. His previous work with I was intrigued by the parallel between the the Cameri Theatre includes Stempenyu, action of photography and the action of the Punk Rock, Requiem, Macbeth, Everybody puppet animation—two manipulative actions Wants to Live, Friedman in Gorodish, Jonah aimed at creating the illusion of life. Since in Bad Jews, Maxim in Hotel Rendezvous, then, the video and the puppets (the stage and Silvius in As You Like It. illusion of making the inanimate come alive) have become an integral part of my work— not just as an aesthetic expression of the About PuppetCinema dramatic content, but one of its key elements as a creative starting point (one in which the By Zvi Sahar mechanism behind the illusion is exposed).

I took my first steps in the theater in Yoram Salt of The Earth Levinstein’s acting studio. I started working with Rina Yerushalmi as part of the Itim With these insights I began working on the Ensemble, and later at the Be’er Sheva next project, Salt of the Earth (2014 Next Theater. At the same time, I continued to Wave). A new element was added to the study theater at the University of Haifa puppets and video that I wanted to animate and looked for my artistic language as a on the stage—the scenography. The show storyteller. I was particularly interested in the opens with a thousand pounds of salt direct and unmediated encounter between poured on the stage of the theater, which form the various landscapes the protagonist but the drama is also in the hands of the one inhabits. The camera moves between these waiting for the delivery, the one who goes landscapes and produces, with different down to the defense as well as the one who angles of photography, varying relations sneaks in and dunks. between the audience and the puppet. The developing style began to focus on The Process of the Current Production simultaneous images—what was happening on the stage and what was happening on the Following the performances of Salt of screen, and on the combination of dramatic The Earth, I was invited to teach the and visual language. PuppetCinema language at the University of Maryland in the US in 2016 as part of the The Artistic Principles visiting artist program of the Schusterman Foundation. As Jim Henson’s alma mater, As a storyteller, I use all tools at my disposal the university fosters a contemporary to convey to the audience—my partner in curriculum that incorporates puppetry, this story—what is going on in my head and theater, and video. in my heart. For the class course I was looking for material The theater enables a rich encounter of that would contain fantasy, human sensitivity, different media on stage. I look for the and realistic simplicity. Choosing Etgar Keret best way to convey the story in the most was obvious to me—a writer, through which precise way: The actor offers contact with American students could learn about Israeli the audience, the text, plot and poetry, the literature and culture and connect to stories on scenery, the lighting, and the costumes the universal human level. create the ultimate illusion. The puppet invites the audience to take part in creating During the preparation for the course I the emotions (as the puppet does not focused on Keret’s book of short stories express the emotion as an actor does, but Suddenly, a Knock on the Door. I felt that invites the audience to charge the puppet there was something that could connect with his own feelings). the stories to a whole performance, which would expose their need to be part of a story. Like walking down a street where our With Oded Littman, I started working on the attention is split between store windows, adaptation while at the same time creating phone calls to someone, the crosswalk, the visual aspects of the show at the Clarice the sidewalk, and the sky, I try to create Smith Performing Arts Center along with the a complex picture on the stage with theater, dance, and performance studies independent and equal focus centers. I program at the University of Maryland believe we are capable of simultaneously together with Leslie Strongwater and Eric viewing different focal points, and my role Berninghausen, long time PuppetCinema as director is to offer the audience a clear collaborators living in Maryland. narrative structure, while allowing it to look at other happenings that will support the It was only natural to end the process of stage action. development with a full production in Israel. I am very happy about the production house The artistic challenge is to synchronize a found in the Cameri Theatre, and also multitude of bodies, actions, and media, to pleased to return the show to UMD to the allow the audience the choice to look at both Clarice and to return once again to BAM, the film and the way it works, while listening completing more than one circle. to the story. Like watching a basketball game, the main action is held by the ball, Photo: PuppetCinema man and wanted the waitress to see that. Fungus Five months had passed since his divorce, and that sentence and a half was the closest By Etgar Keret he’d come in that period to having an intimate Translated by Sondra Silverston conversation with a pretty girl. This story isn’t about him either. The skinny guy fell to the café floor. His stomach hurt more than he thought it ever Traffic was jammed up all the way to the could. A series of involuntary spasms shook hospital. The skinny guy, who was lying in his body. “This is what it must be like when the back of the car, moaned in an almost you’re going to die,” he thought. “But this inaudible voice and drooled on the uphol- can’t be the end. I’m too young, and it’s too stery of the dark-skinned bald guy’s new Alfa embarrassing to die like this, in shorts and sports model. When he got divorced, his Crocs, on the floor of a café that was once friends told him that he had to replace his trendy but hasn’t been making a go of it for family-sized Mitsubishi with something else, years.” The guy opened his mouth to scream a bachelor’s car. Girls learn a lot about you for help, but he didn’t have enough air in from the car you drive. A Mitsubishi says: his lungs to let out a scream. This story isn’t wiped out divorced guy seeks shrew to take about him. place of last bitch. An Alfa sports car says: a cool guy, young at heart, seeks adventure. The waitress who went over to the skinny That skinny guy convulsing in the back guy was named Galia. She never wanted seat was a kind of adventure. The bald guy to be a waitress. She’d always dreamed of thought, “I’m like an ambulance now. I don’t teaching school. But there’s no money in have a siren but I can beep for other cars teaching school, and there was in waitress- to let me pass, go through red lights, like in ing. Not an awful lot, but enough to cover the movies. While he was thinking all that, her rent and all. That year, she’d started he almost floored the gas pedal. While he studying special education at Beit Berl Col- was thinking all that, a white Renault van lege. On the days she was at school, she crashed into the side of his Alfa. The driver worked the night shift at the café. Not even of the Renault was religious. The driver of a dog came to the café at night, and she the Renault didn’t have his seat belt on. The earned less than half the tips, but school was crash killed him on the spot. This story isn’t important to her. “Are you okay?” she asked about him either. the guy on the floor. She knew he wasn’t, but she asked anyway, out of embarrass- Whose fault was the crash? The dark-skinned ment. This story isn’t about her either. bald guy who accelerated and ignored the stop sign? Not really. The van driver who “I’m dying,” the guy said, “I’m dying, call an didn’t buckle his seat belt and was driving ambulance.” over the speed limit? Not him either. There’s only one person responsible for that accident. “There’s no point,” said a dark-skinned, bald Why did I invent all these people? Why did guy sitting at the bar reading the finan- I kill a guy wearing a yarmulke who never cial pages. “It’ll take about an hour for the did anything to me? Why did I make a non- ambulance to get here. They cut their budget existent guy have pain? Why did I destroy a down to the bone. They work Saturday hours dark-skinned bald guy’s family unit? The fact all week now.” While the man was telling her that you invent something doesn’t exempt that, he was hauling the skinny guy onto his you from responsibility, and unlike life, back, and added, “I’ll take him the ER. My car where you can shrug and point up to God in is parked right outside.” He did that because heaven, there’s no excuse here. In a story, he was a good man, because he was a good you’re God. If your protagonist failed, it’s only because you made him fail. If something bad happened to him, it’s only because you wanted it to. You wanted to watch him wal- low in his own blood. Photo: PuppetCinema My wife comes in the room and asks, “Are you writing?” She wants to ask me some- thing. Something else. I can see it on her face, but at the same time, she doesn’t want to interrupt me. She doesn’t want to, but she already has. I say yes, but never mind. This story isn’t working. It’s not even a story. It’s an itch. It’s a fungus under my fingernail. She nods as if she understands what I’m talking about. She doesn’t. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t love me. This story is about us.