YAKISH AND POOPCHE

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Hanoch Levin defined "Yakish and Poopche" - his 19 th play - as a "gloomy comedy". It is a story about two lonely people, Yakish and Poopche. Both are poor and hideously ugly and although they burn with desire ti find a mate - no one wants them. Eventually - with the help of a dubious matchmaker - the two come to the realization that life is not a beauty-parlor; one has no choice but to give up one's dreams and aspiretions and take whatever life offers - even if it is only a rag. And so the two, as a last resort, join in matrimony, but Yakish is so repelled by his wife's ugliness that he is unable to rise to the occasion and consummate the marriage... Finally, after hard labor, Yakish manages somehow to perform his duties and the couple can thus life unhappily ever after.

The world that Levin creates is cruel, grim and devoid of illusion. In a way it is like hell where those who enter must abandon aal hope.

The director, Yevgeny Arie explores this "gloomy comedy" with panache. People are pathetically funny just as clowns who disguise their faces with heavy make-up and tror upon the stage of life making us laugh when we should cry. The world is as absurd as acircus but also as colorful.