Hanoch Levin (; 18 December 1943 – 18 August 1999) was an Israeli screenwriter, theatre director, screenwriter, and poet, best known for his plays. His absurdist style is often compared to the work of Harold Pinter and Samuel Beckett.

Upon his death in 1999, a New York Times obituary referred to him as "Israel's leading playwright".

Biography

thumb|180px| Hanoch Levin's childhood home

thumb|alt=Levin and Oded Kotler during work on the play "The Patriot", 1982|Levin and [[Oded Kotler during work on the play "The Patriot", 1982]]

Levin was born in 1943 to Malka and Israel Levin, who immigrated to then-British Mandate of Palestine in 1935 (now Israel) from Łódź, Poland.

  • Domestic Comedies – Plays focused on small, representative elements of society: individuals, families, friends and neighbors, “the dramatic space of these plays extends between the home, as the smallest unit, and the neighborhood. The city and country are not mentioned” In this group Yaari identifies three subcategories:
  • Courtship and marriage
  • A particular family
  • A neighborhood.
  • Spectacles of Doom – Levin’s philosophical and mythical works, which are usually based on ancient myths and biblical texts. These plays vary greatly in terms of plot, structure and the myths they draw upon, but habitually display similar themes such as: “the agonies and humiliations suffered by people” and “the futility of human suffering” as well as the recurring motifs of “degradation and death”

Personal life

Levin was married three times, to Naava Koresh, Edna Koren and his wife in the last years of his life was actress and dubber Lillian Barreto. He had four children. He continued to work even in the hospital, nearly to his last day, but didn't have time to finish the staging of his play Whiners.

In 2006, The Whore from Ohio (1997) was staged at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village in Manhattan. In the same year, Job's Passion (1981) was staged at Theater for the New City in New York City.

In 2011, Suitcase Packers (1983) was revived at the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv. In the same year, Winter Funeral (1978) was adapted at Theater for the New City in New York City by Laurel Hessing and retitled Winter Wedding.

Since his death, Levin's plays have become popular in Poland.

In 2012, Labour of Life (1981) was staged at the National Theatre in Warsaw in Poland by director Jan Englert.

In 2019, three-volume anthology of 15 plays by Levin was released in English by British publisher, Oberon Books.

In 2023, the Israeli musical film, Victory, which deals with the Six-Day War, prominently includes a Tel Aviv fringe production of Levin's You, Me And The Next War (1968) on a Kibbutz.

Awards and recognition

In 1994, Levin was the co-recipient (jointly with Meir Wieseltier) of the Bialik Prize for literature.

thumb|Memorial sign for Hanoch Levin on his house in Tel Aviv

Levin's death brought new interest in his early stage works. The Israeli Theater Habimah performed several plays by Levin. An updated version of the political satire "You, Me and the Next War" was staged from 2004 through 2008 by the original crew with Bart Berman at the piano.

In 2000, the musician Dudi Levi released the disk Hanoch Levin Project, comprising eleven songs whose words Hanoch Levin composed.

Published works

Plays

  • Chefetz
  • Solomon Grip
  • Yaacobi and Leidental [Temporary title]
  • Vardaleh's Youth
  • Schitz
  • Krum
  • Popper
  • Rubber Merchants
  • Winter Funeral
  • Suitcase Packers
  • Execution
  • The Torments of Job
  • The Great Whore of Babylon
  • The Lost Women of Troy
  • Everyone Wants to Live
  • Yakish and Puptche
  • Submissive and Defeated
  • The Labor of Life
  • The Deliberator
  • The Child Dreams
  • Oops and Oopla
  • The Wonderful Woman Inside Us
  • The Whore from Ohio
  • Mouths Agape
  • The Conqueror
  • Decapitation
  • Rape Trial
  • The Man with the Knife in the Middle
  • Elmo and Ruth
  • Anxious and Frightened
  • Walkers in the Dark
  • Murder
  • Must Be Punished
  • Bachelors and Bachelorettes
  • The Constant Mourner
  • The Emperor
  • Shozes & Bjijina
  • Kludog the Miserable King
  • The Clingers
  • Redemption
  • And a Kiss for the Aunt
  • Emperor Gok
  • All the Queen's Men
  • A Servant's Devotion to his Rigorous Lady
  • Romantics
  • Requiem
  • Thrill My Heart
  • The Janitors
  • Ikhsh Fisher
  • Morris Shimel
  • The Thin Soldier
  • The Lamenters
  • The Watcher
  • Writhe and Twist
  • The Simulant
  • Theophano the Beautiful

Sketches, revues and cabarets

  • You, me and the next war
  • Ketchup
  • Shampoo Queen
  • The Patriot
  • The Gigolo from Congo

Screenplays

  • Floch'
  • Fantasy on a Romantic Theme
  • The Beloved from Poland
  • Angela
  • Apprenticeship Story

Prose

  • The Eternal Invalid and The Beloved
  • A Man Stands Behind a Seated Woman
  • Ishel and Romanzka

Poetry

  • The Blessings of Dawn (1965)
  • Friends' Party Poem (1967)
  • Lives of the Dead (1980)
  • As a Breeze Blows (1981)
  • Farewell Rhymes to a Beloved (1998)
  • Farewell Letters to a Beloved (1998)

Children's books

  • The Happy, Cheerful Cock
  • Uncle Max's Journey

See also

  • List of Bialik Prize recipients
  • Theater of Israel
  • Culture of Israel

References

  • Hanoch Levin official website
  • Biblical Thematics in Stage Design for the Hebrew Theatre Ben-Meir, Orna. Tel Aviv University.
  • Hanoch Levin – Success Story article by Moti Sandak at Jewish-theater.com
  • Hanoch Levin at Institute for Translation of Hebrew Literature.