Yossi Waxman

The Thespian is a story of love, hate, and jealousy between siblings. It is a tale of domination and humiliation, addiction, and longing; a story about theater, which sometimes clashes with real life; about false stories and costumes that so often are life itself - the life we make up for ourselves so that we could deal with the madness and disappointments of real life.

 

The lead characters are Maggie Netanel, a successful theater and film actress, and her brother Benjamin, who tells the story. She lives in uptown Tel Aviv, while he lives in downtown Jaffa. She is married and has children; he is single. They have not spoken for years, but an old and painful secret stands between them.

 

He tries to forget her, but her face haunts him. She lashes at him from every TV screen, smiles at him from gossip columns, and appears in his mind's eye. He loves and hates her. He admires and despises her. He longs for her at nights and stalks here in the evenings, watching her every play, following her children around. In his dreams, he makes up an imaginary life for her, with friends and roles, creating a new reality for her.

 

Will they ever meet? 

 

***

From the Press:

 

"Waxman's writing is charming, free of every rule and law. It is captivating. Despite yourself, you fall in love with these enfants terrible, his protagonists…. It is hard to stop reading this sado-masochistic monologue of perverted love and broken-hearted hate. The Thespian is mostly written with wondrous impetus."

 

Yael Israel, Time Out Tel Aviv

 

 

"In The Thespian, as in Waxman's earlier works, the protagonists of the theater of life he created bring back Italians Fellini and Pasolini and Frenchman Jean Genet as his potential sources of inspiration. He aims his spotlights at the bizarre ends of the human continuum. Waxman's humor is dark by nature. If his earlier literary works introduced him as the potential successor of Hanoch Levin, The Thespian is a real memorial for the acerbic Israeli playwright. In his books, life is grotesque at best, or a macabre comedy."

 

Anat Levitt, Globes