ליא קניג ומרים זוהר: שחקניות תאטרון כסוכנות זיכרון​

The art of theater takes place, as a rule, in the ‘here and now’ of the present, yetall participants in a theatrical production (first and foremost the actors) contributetheir personal and professional ‘past’ to this ‘present.’ Both ‘first ladies’ of Israelitheater, Lea Koenig and Miriam Zohar, are Holocaust survivors and ninety years old.Throughout rich careers which span over seven decades, Lea Koenig andMiriam Zohar have been cast in ‘Holocaust Plays.’ This essay examines the waythey incorporated personal biography in their theatrical performances and theirinterpretations of dramatic texts.An examination of the different projects in which they were involved revealsthat each of them made use of a different strategy to address the memory of theHolocaust in Israel. Their personal cases can both teach us about the role of the artistas an agent of memory within the society in which he or she lives and performs andexemplify more general patterns in Israel’s memory of the Holocaust.