Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's younger brother, Iddo Netanyahu, may be a cardiologist, but he is also a playwright.
He has so far written six plays, of which four have become stage production around the world, including Russia and the US.
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Some five years ago, his play Worlds in Collision was made into a theatrical production by Uzbekistan's state theater, in Russian, and in recent days the Russian Culture Ministry has decided to make it one of the plays that would be available online due to the coronavirus pandemic. It has so far garnered more than 240,000 views, a very high number.
"I wrote this play over the course of several years," Netanyahu, 67, told Israel Hayom. "It was first produced five years ago in Uzbekistan and it has since continued to run. The play was later produced by a theater in St. Petersburg. I have been told the theaters are almost always packed. This is the second time that the director Nabi Abdurahmanov produces one of my plays. Some eight years ago he produced my play Happy End, after seeing in Israel. I cam to Uzbekistan for the première of Worlds in Collision."
What is the play about?
"The play is about Russian-American scholar Immanuel Velikovsky, who was ignored by the entire scientific community, and his real-life encounters with the only scientist who was willing to meet him and talk with him on cosmic theories that he believed shaped humanity. That scientist was Albert Einstein. "
How did you end up writing on this?
"I read some of Velikovsky's writings. His daughter, who lived in Israel, translated them into Hebrew, and that is how I came across his encounters with Einstein. I told myself that this could be good material for a script. When I approached theaters in Israel, it was rejected, mainly because directors thought it would be too hard for readers to understand, but gladly some directors thought differently."
Have you seen the responses to the online version?
"I got raving reviews, and it was very uplifting. Among the responses were people who said it was like a movie, because it was filmed using three cameras and underwent professional editing. I am glad there is a large Russian-speaking audience that was exposed to this modern Israeli play. Let's hope people in Israel also get exposed to it."
