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Drama
Comic Drama
Comedy
Subject:
Human Soul
Youth
Love
Suicidality
Art
Survival
Friendship
Parent-Child Relationship
Illness
Crisis
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This drama chronicles the lives of 5 teenage patients in an Adolescent Psychiatric Institution as they put on their own theatre play.
It’s a window into the lives of doctors, patients, and parents – and inside their souls. But it’s also our story, because these kids – are a high volume version of us.
Playwright Roy Chen wrote the play following 6 months of research in a Psychiatric Hospital. The result blends dark humor with wit and sincerity, and creates a world which is both poetic and raw.
Anybody Here celebrates the healing power of theatre in the hopes of raising the bar of compassion ever so slightly.
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The characters
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Female:5 Male:4 Total:9
THE CHILDREN
ALMA |Suffers from Borderline personality disorder, she dreams of being a psychiatrist.
BARAK| Suffers from Oppositional Defiant Disorder and fits of rage, he dreams of being an actor.
GABRIEL | Diagnosed with a developmental disorder. Gifted with incredible memory skills, he dreams of being stupid.
TAMARA/TOM | (F2M) He dreams of looking the way he feels.
ESTHER | An Orthodox Jewish girl, suffers from PTSD, she dreams of being a lion.
THE STAFF
DR. YORESH| The head of the Juvenile psychiatric ward in the psychiatric hospital – “Daylight”.
EMMA | The new drama teacher
THE PARENTS
played by the same two actors.
JOE & VICKY | Charlie’s parents, own a small bakery
AUDREY & MATTHEW | Alma’s parents, educated, wealthy, divorced
GARY & IRIS | Gabriel’s parents, live in an empty house
MORDECHAI | Esther’s father, an Orthodox Jewish man, living in a closed community
IRINA | Tamara’s mother, born in St. Petersburg, former ballerina
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Translations
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Italian, English, German, Hungarian, Russian
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Productions
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Premierre
2020
Gesher Theatre
director: Ealeal Semmel
Production page
More in Israel
In 2019 I got a phone call from a psychiatric hospital (It’s about time! My father commented) I was invited to attend a theater lesson in the youth department.
I came for an hour, but I stayed for six months. I had the privilege to spend time with wonderful young people of the age of 12 to 18 with thin skin, like I had when I was their age. I got to see their drawings, to read their poems, and to play with them the game Anybody Here (also called A Cold Wind Blows(.
Sometimes I returned home with a smile, full of optimism, and sometimes I couldn’t see the way ‘cause I cried my eyes out.
The teenagers I met there rehearsed a theater show based on their writing, and at the end of the process It was shown only once, in front of an audience of parents, doctors and ward staff. I knew I couldn’t repeat what I had seen, so I followed my own path. I wrote a play about the teenager I was, about my friends, some of whom, unfortunately, did not survive the age of adolescence. I wrote it to celebrate the healing power of theatre, and in the hope of raising the bar of compassion, maybe the most important word of our era.
The result is Anybody Here, a play that was directed by Ealeal Semmel for Gesher theater and it is running for 4 years, I guess you could already call it a cult production.
Anybody here can take place anywhere in the world, as a matter a fact it takes place everywhere, right now, we just need to open our hearts.
theaters
Gesher Theatre
Productions Abroad
Italy
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Hungary
The play was translated into English, Russian, Hungarian, German and Italian.
The Italian production was directed in 2024, by Andree Ruth Shammah, the artistic director of Franco Parenti theater in Milan. It was planned to run for two months, but due to the successes it will run for seven months – every evening, sometime two times a day. The rights for the play were bought by a television producers’ company in Italy.
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Critics
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- “A theatrical miracle!”
La Repubblica, Milano
“A life lesson, rare to find. Anybody Here is an emotional, passionate and thoughtful story. It is the authentic sense of theater which, not surprisingly, has a central meaning in the story told itself. Long final applause.”
Massimiliano Beneggi, Teatro e Musica news
“Anybody Here bewitched the spectators in what is more than a theatrical show, it is a moving and profound immersion in the sharing of a human experience.”
Gianfranco Previtali Rosti, Corriere dello spettacolo
The strength of this text is certainly in the perfect balance of drama with the comic, and even the grotesque. We laugh a lot and have fun, even though it is anything but a light story.
Paolo Martini, dramaholic.it
“A more powerful scenic metaphor for the need for theater could not have been found, underlining its existential and, even, spiritual therapeutic value.
Danilo Caravà, Milano Teatri
“A stunning, fascinating and moving production. All five young actors give incredibly raw and true performances. FIVE STARS”
YEDIOT AHARONOT Daily Newspaper
“A touching production that shakes you up, with painful and tender moments, alongside comic reliefs.”
CALCALIST Newspaper
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Quotes
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ALMA
It’s um… like a letter to an old mistress, named Mania.
Dear Mistress mania, last time you paid me a visit, you gave me this gift... Of a crown. I was crazy pretty, crazy smart, crazy happy! But when you left, Mistress Mania, I suddenly noticed that the crown was made of paper. It shattered my heart. I was ugly and stupid and I fell into the arms of Dame-depression. By the way, I can’t stand her either, but that’s a whole other letter I’ll send her very soon. Don’t come back to visit me, Mistress Mania, not on weekends, not on holidays, not on birthdays. Without you I’m really, really, really… just fine. Yours, Alma
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