July 1st SATURDAY 9:30pm
Theatre Carte Blanche
TATYANA KHAZANOVSKY, ESTHER
THE KING’S LETTER
Independent theatre project by Tatyana Khazanovsky, Israel, Tel Aviv
Actor and director: TATYANA KHAZANOVSKY
Choreography: Jasmin Tvina
Costume designer: Maša Mihailova
The King’s Letter is a play which combines acting and dance. The play is based on the Old Testament, it is the Biblical story of Queen Esther. “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted...“
These are the opening words of the play taken from the Book of Ecclesiastes. This play speaks of timeliness and duty, fear and destiny.
The play is based on the Book of Esther. Esther was a young Jewish woman who lived in Persia in 5th century BC. Persian king Ahasuerus chose her to be his wife among many other beautiful maidens, and so she became queen.
When the grand vizier, Haman the Agagite gained permission from the king to pillage and exterminate all Jews in the kingdom, Esther’s cousin, Mordecai begged the queen to defend her people. This was a dangerous request, because she could not approach the king without being summoned, on pain of death. Nevertheles, Esther dresses in her royal apparel and goes to see the king. When the king asked her what her request was, she invited the king and Haman to come to a banquet she had prepared. At the banquet they accepted her invitation to dine with her again on the following day.
At the second dinner party, when the king was sufficiently beguiled by her charms, Esther reveals her identity as a Jew for the first time, and accuses Haman of the plot to destroy her and her people.
The king orderes that Haman should be hanged on the gallows and issues a decree authorizing the Jews to defend themselves.
This monodrama has been performed several times in Riga, Kiev, Moscow, New York, etc. It has also been performed at the Festival of Monodrama in Bitola (FYROM) and at MOST Festival in Hanover (Germany) 2017.
