SPAR DRAMA CENTRE

65 MINS

SAT 1000

R 90

One of three theatre gems from Israel. See also The Timekeepers and Volunteer Man.

 "That night too I woke up and heard Mom and Dad arguing. Mom said to Dad that he was fucking up her life with all his playing around, and his walking out on us and his moods, and she was fed up, fed up: and he answered back that it was hard for him too, and he felt stifled and stuck in a rut, and his time was running out and, he never succeeded in getting anything done; then she said that if he cried less over his wasted time he wouldn’t waste so much time; and he asked her not to be nasty" 

This is how the story about the deterioration of an Israeli family, told by Yotam, begins… Yotam, an eleven year old child, obsessed with documentation, records everything in his children's tape recorder, "My First Sony". He follows the events and reports them accurately, a fact which emphasizes the comic aspect of painful developments in his life, such as his parents' separation and the inevitable ending… 

Written by Benny Barbash, directed by Dafna Widenfeld-Nagler and performed by Roy Horovitz.

A play by Benny Barbash, based on his book, by the same title

An award-winning monodrama, which has toured Israel and abroad (Germany, U.S.A., Canada, Egypt…) to great acclaim for more than 13 years now, and enjoyed rave reviews:

• "A poignant, moving piece of theatre with a rather shocking ending, a beguiling exploration of a father-son relationship filtered through a young boy's eyes. Highly recommended" (The Sunday Independent, 24/7/2011)

• "The multi-talented Horovitz, who was instrumental in the adaptation of Benny Barbash's book of the same title, has been playing the character of Yotam for nearly 15 years…Horovitz gives so much of himself through the performance, sensitive, engaging and exciting to watch on stage. 
  In the time he allows us to share in Yotam's obsession, one is taken on a sometimes voyeuristic journey into a family stretched out of shape.
  According to Horovitz, he is still in love with this work, the first of his career, and that love really comes through in his performance" (The Citizen, 19/7/2011)

• "My First Sony delivered a memorable theatre experience…Horovitz has been traveling the global festival circuit with this play for 15 years, yet his performance is fresh and authentic, showing no signs of the contempt that often comes with familiarity….The play is in essence a universal exploration of childhood revealed through his tapes- most especially how children process information and read situations, sometimes too literally, sometimes with piercingly accurate analysis. There are lots of reasons to laugh out loud at Yotam's editing of his memories, and an equal number to shed a tear. My First Sony is a first-class piece of theatre, sparse in props but generous in capturing the spirit of the human experience" (City Press, 24/7/2011)

• "On a stage adorned with bookshelves containing audio cassettes, in a manner that is childlike, yet not childish, Horovitz climbs under the skin of the troubled Yotam and begins relaying his recollections and observations. This is storytelling at its most pure and engrossing. At barely an hour in duration, it is just long enough to sketch the moods and flashes of humour that define a family in crisis and the impact it has on the children". (The Sunday Times, 17/7/2011)

• "A poignant and compelling slice of human drama. It tells of a Tel Aviv boy whose parents’ marriage is crumbling, and who tries to distance himself and make sense of the situation by recording these moments on his kids’ tape recorder.Horovitz, who has travelled the world performing this story, could relate to the overweight, insecure narrator as he used to be chubby himself. Audiences are urged to take a chance on this powerful show" (Business Day, 19/7/2011)
• "My First Sony is a one-man performance of rich hues, an utterly engrossing look at an Israeli family seen through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy…What makes this play so impressive is the contribution by Israeli actor and director Roy Horovitz…There is an infectious simplicity that Horovitz brings to bear on his shaping of Yotam, a character whose weight problems had always been the focal point of his father’s rage. One cannot fail to find empathy with the boy who is witness to his father’s continuous quarrelling with the mother, fights that eventually led to divorce. The pain he feels is suffused with gentle humour and an understanding of complicated adult relationships. The play is not about sadness. It’s about life and this is what one has to extract from it. There is nothing overstated in the production even when he is describing an intense episode in his life. The staging is simple. Three bookcases on stage contain Yotam’s many tapes and they are divided into sections; sounds from nature, quarrels and Dad. Again, one must applaud the actor in Roy Horovitz for his tight control of his character and for not once allowing it to slide into “schmaltzy” sentimentality. Although it’s an Israeli production it has a universal theme. My First Sony is a polished gem" (artslink.co.za, 15/7/2011)
• "Horovitz is above all an extremely likeable performer…The story is a focus on divorce from the child's perspective, and thus it becomes universal. 
  In the piece, the tears tremble on your lashes, burning you as you watch. They are tears of vicarious anger at the horrific descriptions of a father bullying and embarrassing a child, tears of simple devastation in empathy with what the child articulates at the breaking down of his parent's marriage…It is told with a gentle breathlessness by Horovitz, leaving you on the edge of your seat" (Jewish Report, 22/7/2011)
• "My First Sony brims with traumas, forgiveness and love. Horowitz paints vivid pictures of his family life as if you are listening to the live recordings themselves. With flashbacks and memories, both touching and funny, you cannot help but turn up the volume on this charming, delicate piece of international theatre" (myshtetl.co.za)

• "It is clear that Horovitz is a consummate actor- talented and exciting… Although the story sounds sad, the play is both touching and funny" - The Daily Davar
• "A beautiful and very well acted play... Not a dull moment. Horovitz is sensitive, natural and convincing. He successfully plays a child without falling into childishness, and gains sympathy without gushing 'shmaltz'" - The Daily Yediot Aharonot

Directed by: Dafna Widenfeld-Nagler
Performed by: Roy Horovitz
Recorded voices: Yehuda Efroni, Natalie Fainstein, Riki Hayut, Carol Brown, Yiftach Ofir, David Rodriguez, Sigalit Tamir
Speech Coach: Naa'ma Ginat

Reviews

• The Citizen

• The Star

Cue Online

Overcoming pain and chaos with a Sony 

Author: Theresa Edlmann

My First Sony opens with Roy Horovitz, the only actor in this piece, sidling into a simple stage setting: two bookcases filled with audiocassette tapes. One is labelled “sounds from nature”, the other “quarrels” and “dad”. This tentative and engaging opening is the perfect device for the gentle and absorbing performance that follows.

Based on a novel of the same title, the show is about a young man who survives the turbulence of his chaotically flamboyant family by using the Sony tape recorder his father gave him to make sound recordings of everything that happens. His collection of cassettes become a personal archive, the replaying and recounting of which help him make sense of his story and identity.

Horovitz brings an endearing simplicity of approach to the role of Yotam. He uses a practised story-teller’s understated skill to describe scenes of an adoring young boy being victimised, and then abandoned by his father as his parents struggle through conflicts in their marriage. Lightness and humour in the telling take the edge off the pain, bringing a sense of humanity and compassion instead.

The narrative follows cycles that mirror each other: the young boy standing in the midst of a dysfunctional yet loving family, listening to the complex weavings of pain and courage in each person’s journey. In a similar way, his father works as a ghost writer for Holocaust survivors who want to document their stories. Each is witnessing another’s story of pain while holding within them a desire for a personal passage into redemption and meaning.

Struggle through malaise

Yotam’s father is defeated in his struggle for a way through this malaise, but his gift of the Sony tape recorder to his son has a significance way beyond anything he could have understood at the time. Yotam’s Sony becomes a holder of memory and possibly a device through which he finds his way into new levels of insight and forgiveness. The gift is even greater than that: he is able to enrich others’ lives through the courage and insight his story brings to those who come to hear it.

Most productions that have appeared on the Arena so far have had the sense of being a work in progress. This is without question the most polished piece to have appeared in this new venture at the Festival, which raises questions about what qualifies for the Arena or the Main programmes. While the questions will need to be worked out in the future, what does need to be said for now is that My First Sony would have been more at home on the Main than the Arena.