Review: Tal – Tal Levy Cohen @Online

“Tal from Tal Levy Cohen is…an accomplished piece of theatre, and certainly a useful addition to a worldwide dialogue”

📍 Online
📅 Seen online – available all year.
🕖 Running time: 55 minutes (approx)
🖊️ Writing, Directing, Choreography and Performance: Tal Levy Cohen
🎭 Consulting, Rehearsal & Stage management: Bat-Chen Harvardi Vakshi
🎭 Dramaturgy: Osnat Shnek Yosef
🎦 Content consulting: Amir Orian, Sara Vino Elad, Avi Greinik
🎵 Original music: Raz Olsher, Zej – Yuval Wetzler & Raz Olsher, Nadav Wetzler
⚒️ Set: Tal Levy Cohen, Yuval Hamami
🪡 Costume: Franklin Tavares Prexedes
💡 Lighting design and operation: Johnny Tal
🎥 Photography & Editing: Amnon Haas
📷 Additional photographers: Yotam Monk, Eli Ma’ayani, David Monteith-Hodge
🎂 14+

Tal Levy Cohen’s one person play, TAL is an intensely personal exploration of her own lived experience in the shadow of the eating disorder, Bulimia. Through word, physical theatre, and dance she takes us back in time, leading us down the road which led to a most unhealthy relationship with food, and out again.

Combining with a most mesmeric soundtrack from Raz Olsher, Zej – Yuval Wetzler & Raz Olsher, and Nadav Wetzler, the show invites the audience into an altered reality. How could it be other when Cohen invites us inside her mentality, and to live her history? This sense of the abstract is further enhanced by her carefully controlled physical movement, and a clever use of a few simple, but effective props.

This is a show mostly concerned with expectations and communication. Those expectations may come from parents, colleagues, or one’s self. The lines of communication between each are subject to societal pressures, and the smoke and mirrors our own brains inflict upon us. The monologue is kept elegantly simple, whilst every effort is made to show rather than tell. Tal’s struggle to negotiate her mind-body journey is shown in actions sharp and smooth, symbolic and enigmatic. Indeed over the pacey run of this show, a combined language of word and body is created to deliver a message of hope.

This isn’t a generic show, that is to say it’s primarily personal in nature, the lessons it offers particular to its creator. It’s a captivating performance, and a genuine insight into the life of a human being. It offers hope of reconciliation between the conflicting pressures which often threaten to pull people apart. Perhaps the conclusion is surprisingly neat given the messy complexity it embraces, but Tal remains a brave, and uncompromising personal journey.

All in all this is an accomplished piece of theatre, and certainly a useful addition to a worldwide dialogue on the mental health challenges which accompany the human experience.

Tal by Tal Levy Cohen can be viewed on demand. It is produced by Tal Levy Cohen.

TAL can be watched online on demand. For access, and further information, please click here.