Ornat Lempert explores Israeli motherhood in poignant performance

Ornat Lempert explores Israeli motherhood in a one-woman cabaret blending humor, tragedy, and collective reflection.

 ORNAT LEMPERT in ‘As a Mother of Three Sons.’   (photo credit: ARIK SHRAGA)
ORNAT LEMPERT in ‘As a Mother of Three Sons.’
(photo credit: ARIK SHRAGA)

Ornat Lempert takes patrons on a side-splitting, yet often tragic, one-woman cabaret show in As a Mother of Three Sons.

The title points to the irony of late playwright Hanoch Levin and his 1970 Queen of a Bathtub. In it, a woman says: “As a mother of three children, one of whom is a combat duty soldier, and as a daughter of a Holocaust survivor, I am qualified to say: ‘Do not harm the Arab, there are plenty of dirty cups to wash in the kitchen.’”

Israeli motherhood

Last year’s winner of Theatronetto festival’s audience favorite prize, Lempert inhabits in this show the role of an exaggerated all-Israeli woman who rapidly goes through all stages of normative life – from joining the IDF to marriage and motherhood.

The imaginary character is preparing a celebration for her birthday party, which is on October 7.

 Seats in a theater. (credit: PXFUEL)Enlrage image
Seats in a theater. (credit: PXFUEL)

Funny and poignant, this Hebrew performance by The Lady Theater group (Lempert, Yonatan Solag, and others) offers a sharp insight into the collective pain of Israeli life with an added laugh of how to cope with them. 

Mon., Feb. 3, 8:30 p.m., Jaffa Theater. NIS 70 per ticket. 10 Tayelet Mifraz Shlomo, Tel Aviv. Call (03) 518-5563 to book. Sat., Feb. 22, 8:30 p.m. at the Gelem Theater 23 Hanamal Street, Haifa. (Payment option via Bit, to 052-594-4111, text the name of the show). Thur., March 6, 8:30 p.m. at the Acco Theatre Center, 1 Weitzman St. NIS 80 per ticket. Call (04) 991-4222 to book.