In 1936, the “Habima” circle in British-ruled Tel Aviv staged an imaginary literary trial following the theatre’s decision to perform “The Merchant of Venice” in Hebrew for the first time. Long before the premiere, a public protest was sparked over the question: What should be presented on the stage of the Hebrew Theatre? The accused included none other than William Shakespeare himself, the Habima Theatre, and the director, Professor Leopold Jessner, who had recently fled Nazi Berlin in search of safe asylum.

In 2025, following the artist’s personal act of immigration, the internal and external voices of he homeland’s politics were reawakened and began conducting an ideological and narrative trial within her mind. In “The Appeal,” she seeks to create a public stage for these seemingly contradictory voices and invites an audience to participate in the discussion, similar to the event in 1936.

Orly Noa Rabinyan is a theatre director and writer whose stage work focuses on intercultural and multilingual encounters. The day after the massacre of 7 October 2023 in Israel, she first came to neimënster to work on her play: 'The Appeal', which aims to create a safe space for political discussion.