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Motti Lerner

MOTTI LERNER

  (1949 - )
Nationality:    Israeli
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Motti Lerner (b. 1949, Israel), playwright and screenwriter, teaches playwriting at the Kibbutz College in Tel Aviv. Most of his plays and films deal with political issues. Among his plays are: Kastner, Pangs of the Messiah, Paula, and Pollard, all produced by the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv, Exile in Jerusalem and Passing The Love of Women at Habima National Theatre, Autumn at the Beit Lessin Theatre, Tel Aviv, Hard Love at the Municipal Theatre in Haifa, and The Hastening of The End in the Khan Theatre in Jerusalem. His play The Murder of Isaac was produced at Heilbron Theatre in Germany (1999) and at Centerstage Theatre in Baltimore (2006), Benedictus was first produced by Golden Thread Theatre in San Francisco (2007), and In the Dark premiered at Chingari Theatre Group in Delhi (2011). He has written screenplays for the films Loves in Betania, The Kastner Trial, Bus Number 300, Egoz, A Battle in Jerusalem, The Silence of the Sirens, Altalena, and Spring 1941 (with Joseph Fiennes and Claire Higgins in the title roles), and for the 12 episodes of the TV drama series The Institute. He is a recipient of the Best Play Award (1985) and the Israeli Motion Picture Academy Award for Best TV Drama (1995 and 2004). In 1994, he won the Prime Minister of Israel's Award for his creative work. His plays have been produced in the US, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, South Africa, Australia, Canada, and India. His book on Chekhov's writing method, According To Chekhov, was published in 2011. His play Paulus will open at Silk Road Theatre in Chicago in November 2013. He has taught playwriting and screenwriting at Duke University, Knox College, and Jawaharlal Nehru University.

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below is a list of Motti Lerner's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         Admission, The         Autumn         Benedictus         Coming Home         Exile In Jerusalem         Hard Love         Kastner         Murder Of Isaac, The         Pangs Of the Messiah         Passing the Love Of Women         Paula         Pollard
Admission, The

Synopsis:
About the claim that Israeli soldiers massacred many Palestinian civilians and expelled others before razing the Palestinian village of Tantura in late-May, 1948. The controversy over what happened in Tantura (fictionalized as Tantur) lies at the heart of a new play. An Israeli father and son, ex-soldiers at odds over the son's suspicions of a dark event in Israel's past.

Notes:
Translated from the Hebrew by Johanna Gruenhut and Motti Lerner. The Admission was one of the featured plays in hotINK at the Lark 2013, an annual international festival of play readings curated by Catherine Coray and produced at the Lark Play Development Center in New York.

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Autumn

Synopsis:
a farmer is killed by his family when they discover he is having an affair

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Benedictus

Synopsis:
there is an impending attack on nuclear installations in Iran by America. an Israeli arms dealer tries to get his sister out of the country

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1st Produced:
Goldenthread Theater, San Francisco     2007

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Coming Home

Synopsis:
a young soldier returns from a tour of duty suffering from post traumatic syndrome

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One act

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Exile In Jerusalem

Exile In Jerusalem
the German-Jewish poet else Lasker Schuller fled the Nazis in 1933 and went to Jerusalem where she died in obscurity and poverty

Notes:
Original title: "else"

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Contained in: "Nine Contemporary Jewish Plays" published by University of Texas Press   

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Hard Love

Synopsis:
after twenty years being divorced a secular writer and his ultra orthodox ex wonder whether they should remarry

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Kastner

Synopsis:
Negotiations between the Jewish Community in Hungary and adolph eichmann to try and rescue european Jewry

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Murder Of Isaac, The

Synopsis:
as part of their therapy at a clinic for post traumatic stress disorder a group of patients re-enact the assassination of Israel's Prime Minster Yitzhak Rabin

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Pangs Of the Messiah

Synopsis:
a right wing West Bank group blow up a mosque in an attempt to derail a peace treaty with Jordan. Set in 2012 amidst the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians, Motti Lerner's Pangs of the Messiah is an apocalyptic yet fiercely humane Drama about eight West Bank Jewish settlers pitted against an Israel they feel betrayed by. the play focuses on a religious family that finds itself torn between fighting to stay in their settlement and obeying their government's decision to dismantle it. Left hanging in the balance is the legacy of their beliefs

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Silk Road Theatre Project

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Genre:
Play/Drama

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Passing the Love Of Women

Synopsis:
Two students in 19th Century Poland fall in love. So that they can live together one of them disguises himself as a woman

Notes:
Based on A short story "Two" by Isaac Bashevis Singer

1st Produced:
Aaron And Cecille Goldman Theater, Washington D C    

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Theater J

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Genre:
Gay, full length

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Paula

Synopsis:
Paula Ben-Gurion wife of the first prime minister of Israel

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Genre:
Monologue play

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Pollard

Synopsis:
Israeli Intelligence hire an American Jewish sailor to spy for them

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