Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Rehearsals’ on Hulu, An Israeli Dramedy About Theater World Exes Forced To Work Together

The ten-episode dramatic comedy Rehearsals (Hulu), or Hazarot in Hebrew – it’s also known as Stage Crush, just to confuse matters further – made a splash on Israel’s Kan 11 TV when it debuted in January 2021 during the COVID-19 lockdowns. People were starved for the experience of live theater, and Rehearsals promised to reveal how the hot dog was made. Noa Koler and Erez Drigues star as personal and professional partners whose five-year romance explodes just as their brand new play is greenlit; Koler and Drigues also serve as creators and co-writers here, along with Assaf Amir.

REHEARSALS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A theater crowd claps and hollers as a stage manager in his headset watches from the wings. “Bravo! Great show!” he tells the actors as they plod offstage in their bulky and frilly period costumes. “Fuck the show,” grumbles its cantankerous male lead from beneath his frock wig.

The Gist: It’s certainly a peek behind the curtain of Tel Aviv’s insular theater industry. Everyone knows each other, and everyone’s bickering. The grumbling Shlomo (Shmil Ben Ari) wasn’t gracious enough to his co-star Maya (Agam Rudberg) during curtain call, another actor’s angry that he stepped on her lines, and everyone’s salty over the cast list for the Mishkan Theater’s upcoming production of Chekhov’s The Seagull. The next day, romantic couple and professional partners Iris (Noa Koler), a playwright, and Tomer (Erez Drigues), a director, are pitching a scene from their new play to Vera (Eugenia Dodina), the no-nonsense Russian-born director of the Mishkan. She seems somewhat less than impressed, and the meeting leaves a bad taste in the couple’s mouths on the drive home.

There, a fight breaks out. It’s how they always do, burbling up from an errant comment or stray intention. And it doesn’t help that Tomer caught Iris dozing during sex. Later, when they watch Maya overacting her way through the scene of a military drama on television – “I don’t like her, Iris says, “She’s boring” – Tomer can’t resist the opening. “Obviously, you’re easily bored.”

As Tomer and Iris’s relationship is tested, Maya is out to dinner with her boyfriend after another theater performance, where their friends make clear how tired they are of her pretentious nature. And while it pisses her off, she doesn’t necessarily correct them. After all, she’s still pestering Vera to police what she sees as Shlomo’s professional insolence. For Iris and Tomer, it comes down to a decision. “Our relationship is stuck,” she acknowledges to herself. But Iris is also determined to stick it out. As for Tomer, he’s compiled a list of trite negatives about their personal relationship. But how would a split work, given their close professional partnership? That becomes the million dollar question when the Mishkan sends a text he never expected to receive. “Loved your play! Call us so we can proceed.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Noa Koler, so good here as Iris, also co-stars in the award-winning Israeli workplace comedy Checkout, about the shenanigans surrounding the staff and customers at a supermarket in Israel. (Checkout is available in North America on the Jewish entertainment-focused SVOD platform ChaiFlicks.) And in the bitter Swedish comedy Love & Anarchy (Netflix), inter-office flirtations and hookups complicate life for a consultant tasked with the financial restructuring of a legacy publishing house.

Our Take: It’s said that Noa Koler and Erez Drigues were once a romantic couple in real life, and that they wrote and performed One+One, the play inside the world of Rehearsals, years back for Israeli theater audiences. So the levels of inside baseball occurring inside a dramedy about a romantic couple who break up but have to keep seeing each other at work because she wrote the play and he’s directing it are obvious and pretty rich. But it doesn’t feel like Koler and Drigues are too close to this as the first 30-minute episode unfolds. Iris and Tomer feel as distinct as any other character on Rehearsals, from Maya to Vera to Shlomo, all of whom live and work inside the Israeli entertainment industry. And in that sense, what’s made clear early on is hierarchy. Shlomo, the stage veteran, has nothing but contempt for audiences, and probably even less respect for other actors. Maya has a hit TV show, but longs for the professional legitimacy of on stage recognition. (In one cutting sequence, Shlomo dismisses a request from Maya with cruel, patronizing sarcasm.) And Iris and Tomer’s work and love lives have become so entwined, it’s no longer clear if either can exist without the other. “I need to figure out who I am without you,” Tomer offers callously, as his lover sobs and retches into a toilet. Handing down her Xanax is the exact least he can do.

Of course, whatever the hierarchies of their work and love lives, Iris and Tomer are facing down a forced coercion. This is show business, and the show must go on. And it’s clear that Rehearsals will happily play its central duo’s personal difficulties off the professional realities of a contemporary theater production, where Maya – “I don’t like her, she’s boring” – will be the on stage foil for Iris. Oh, the drama.

Sex and Skin: It’s the scene that sets off Iris and Tomer’s big meltdown. “Did you just fall asleep?” he asks, irritated, and the camera backs out from her closed eyes to reveal him on top, naked from the waist down. Iris protests that she was only resting her eyes, concentrating, but Tomer isn’t having it. “I can’t believe you fell asleep. Disgusting. It’s like screwing a corpse.”

Parting Shot: Tomer has re-entered their home, and managed to disarm Iris’s anger. “See what happens when I talk? You should do the talking in our relationship. I should stay quiet. You don’t change horses when you’re winning.” But after he reveals his big “surprise,” and shows her the text from the theater, Iris’s contentment and elation curdles into suspicion. “When did you see the message?” she demands of Tomer. “Get out.” And Iris is heard vomiting.

Sleeper Star: Asaf Peri is a standout during a dicey scene in a Tel Aviv cafe, where Maya can’t read the room and for once stop sputtering about Chekhov and her recent performance. Finally, her boyfriend’s buddy Yuvi (Peri) has had enough, drops the passive-aggressive tolerance and becomes full-on fed-up. “It would be great if you could talk less so others can get a word in. We had a shitty day too, you know. We didn’t wake up just to come see your play. But I didn’t dump my shit on you.”

Most Pilot-y Line: “We’ve been together five years,” Iris says to Tomer. “Tell me what you want out of this relationship. I’m gonna say it. I’m gonna count to three, and then I’m saying it. You also say it. Ready? Three, two, one…”

“-I want a baby.”

“-I want to break up.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Israeli dramedy Rehearsals offers a sharp take on the insular world of professional theater as it emphasizes the satisfyingly thorny interplay between its main characters.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges