ABSTRACT
The Itim Ensemble, Rina Yerushalmi’s company, had its roots in a 1988 summer workshop on Shakespearean texts. After unprecedented critical acclaim of an ensuing production of Hamlet at a local theatre festival, the experiment found a permanent home in the Tel Aviv municipal theatre, The Cameri. The most available models for Yerushalmi’s affinities and sensibilities are Jerzy Grotowski’s Poor Theatre and the environmental orientation in Richard Schechner’s work. The work on each experiment began with a deliberation as to the physical image of the theme to be encountered. The circle and the grid, virtually opposed though they may be, each supplied in its own way, a temenus for the work. Yerushalmi explores, together with her ensemble, the potential of the medium and its limits, toward the achievement of an essentially theatrical experience. Yerushalmi’s approach is inspiring, not only because of her ensemble’s remarkable achievements but for the formulation of an original working model.
