About the Playwright
Playwright and screenwriter Motti Lerner was born in Israel in 1949. He teaches playwriting at Tel Aviv University and has been active in the peace movement in Israel since 1973. He frequently lectures at European and American Universities on playwriting, the Israeli theater, and especially on the Israeli theater and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 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; and
Hard Love at the Haifa Municipal Theater. His play The
Murder of Isaac about the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was produced at the Heilbron Theatre in Germany (1999) and had its American premier at Centerstage theater in Baltimore (2006). He has written screenplays for the films “Loves in Betania,” “The Kastner Trial,” “Bus Number 300,” “Egoz,” the 12 episodes of the TV drama series “The Institute,” “A Battle in Jerusalem,” and “The Silence of the Sirens.” His feature film “Spring 1941” is currently in production in Poland with Joseph Fiennes in the lead role. His film “Altalena,” set in 1948, is in production in Israel. He is a recipient of the Meskin Award for the best play (1985), and the Israeli Motion Picture Academy award for best TV drama in 1995 and in 2004. In 1994 he won the Prime Minister’s of Israel Award for his creative work. Besides Israel, his plays have been produced in the US, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Australia. His American productions include: The
Murder of Isaac (Centerstage theater, Baltimore, the New York Now festival at the Public Theater in New York),
Exile in Jerusalem (Williamstown Festival—with Julie Harris in the title role; Jewish Ensemble Theatre, Detroit; La MaMa Expermiental Theatre, New York; Theater J, Washington, DC),
Hard Love (Theatre Or, Durham NC and Victory Gardens, Chicago),
Passing The Love of Women (Theater J, Washington DC) and
Coming Home (Golden Thread Productions, San Francisco). His next American production is
Benedictus at the Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco—a collaborative work with Iranian and American theater artists, opening in September 2007.
Read Motti's article Playwriting in Wartime
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