Jaffa and Theatre

On their first night in Tel Aviv, Anne and Mark journeyed to the old section of town, called Jaffa.  They would have gone to the beach immediately, but the locals claim that Jaffa is the last city that Jonah was in before he was swallowed by a fish and held for 3 days before being spit up on the shore again.  Anne and Mark may have been a bit skeptical that this was the exact location from where Jonah pushed off, but were not going to risk it as they were in no mood to be swallowed by a large fish.  However, the old town of Jaffa (which is now contained within the modern city of Tel Aviv) sure looked like it could have been around at the time of Jonah.

This is not to say that Jaffa was staid or boring, either now or back in the day.  Apparently, Jonah could have had one whale of a time before he set out to sea if he had wanted.  (yeah, I said "whale of a time" - so what?)

Jaffa - Ohh, la, la.

But Anne and Mark did not go to Jaffa to seek out Jonah or to find out what was being sold at the establishment pictured above.  Anne and Mark went to Jaffa to see some live theatre.

Anne and Mark were traveling on this trip with several other faculty members from the University.  One of them had heard about a theatre with a show that had only blind and deaf actors (or mostly blind and deaf actors).  This is where the four faculty members went for dinner and a show.

The theatre contained a restaurant staffed entirely by hearing impaired wait staff.  The waiter who served Anne and Mark was good at reading lips (in multiple languages), playing charades, playing "Pictionary" on a dry erase board stationed at the table, and when all of that failed, at pointing at things on the menu.  Communication was a bit difficult, but not an insurmountable obstacle.  Additionally, the wait staff gave a brief crash course in sign language so that everyone had at least the basics under their belt before ordering.

The guy in the middle would get beat up if he used that sign on a water bus in Venice.

Once the ordering was complete, dinner was served and it was delicious.  Anne and Mark chose to eat prior to the show, so it was a fairly standard, normal dinner.  However, if they had stuck around for the post-show dinner, it would have been entirely dark and silent throughout the meal.  The restaurant, actually called the "Blackout Cafe," closes all the windows and requires all patrons to eat in silence to allow a brief glimpse into the world of the blind and deaf.  And, as seen in the photo below, the restaurant was rather large, so navigating it, eating, drinking and paying for a meal in the dark and without speaking or listening would be more than a bit of a challenge.  Which, probably was the lesson that the entire exercise was intended to teach.

Yeah, he's going to eat ALL of that.

After a tasty meal (Mark had the Moroccan fish while Anne enjoyed a spicy pasta dish), Anne and Mark took their seats for the show.  The play was entitled "Not By Bread Alone," and it was based and centered around the life experiences of the dozen or so cast members.

The cast preparing the dough prior to the curtain going up.

The play begins with the characters kneading dough and putting it in the oven.  While preparing the dough for baking, the actors demonstrated the importance of timing and non-verbal and non-visual communication by using tactile cues provided by one another and counting exactly the number of steps to take in each direction in order to hit the mark on the stage, including bringing the dough to the ovens.  It was all very impressive.

While the bread was baking the characters discussed their life experiences through a series of dramatic vignettes, some demonstrating that their sight and/or vision had left them during their life, others explaining that they remembered sounds from their youth, but were totally unable to understand "vision."  But this is not to say that the play was depressing.  Quite the contrary, it was much more of a study of spirit and overcoming obstacles.  Quite uplifting.

And appetizing.  After about 35 minutes of acting, it was clear that the ovens on stage right were not props, but actual ovens actually engaged in the process of baking the bread.  This was apparent by the aroma of baking bread wafting throughout the theatre.

After the finale of the play, the characters took the bread out of the ovens and invited the audience to join them onstage for a 'meet-and-greet' and a post-show bread tasting.

It is hard to beat fresh baked bread.

Anne and Mark went onstage and sampled a few of the loaves that had been baked during the show.  They then said hello to some of the cast members.  With the particular cast members Anne and Mark were able to meet, this was a two-step process.  First, there was the simple act of shaking hands.  Second, Anne and Mark told the interpreter what they wanted to say and the interpreter passed it along.  One cast member was deaf, but could see a bit, so the congratulatory message was passed along in sign language.  Another cast member was both blind and deaf.  To communicate with him, the interpreter used a system whereby each space between knuckles on each finger represented a different letter (in Hebrew).  When the congratulatory message was given, the interpreter spelled it out on the fingers of that cast member.  One of the faculty members we were traveling with, Howard, sat down with a cast member who read Braille and introduced himself by directing the cast member's fingers along a labeled board with the Braille alphabet.  The cast member asked Howard where he was from.  Howard responded that he was from the U.S.  The cast member said, "Well obviously.  Where in the U.S.?"  The man may have been blind and deaf, but he was still not letting much get by him.

Howard saying hello to a cast member.