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[Itay Tiran] was destined to be a musician. At least that's what everyone - including he - thought. Tiran, who has been called the James Dean of Israeli theater, is instead today's leading light of the local theater industry. At the Cameri, in addition to \"Hamlet\", Tiran took the starring role in Yehoshua Sobol's \"Eyewitness\", appeared in \"Caviar And Lentils\", \"Ootz Li Gootz Li\", and \"Shirat Hacameri\". He has made television appearances and recently wrapped up his first feature film, \"Forgiveness,\" by Udi Aloni (set for a summer release). He took three months of voice coaching to transform himself into an American. Not everything written about him is good. Tiran laments the \"yellow journalism\" that prevails in this country. He says there's a line between writing about what someone does for his or her job and writing gossip about his or her private life. \"My private life is not relevant, it's not for the public to know. I don't like being a part of the gossip circuit. If it's not connected to what I do, why write about it? Moreover, gossip writers are mean and seem to be looking for a fight,\" says Tiran, who allows that he is dating someone.

\"To be or not to be,\" that's the question posed at least seven different ways today at the Cameri Theater's seventh Live Literary Magazine. And there's no one better to pose the Shakespearean query than Itay Tiran, the celebrated star of the current production of Hamlet.

On Saturday night, the Cameri Theater of Tel Aviv gave a \"Salute to William Shakespeare\" at the British Ambassador's Residence in Ramat Gan. Actors from the theater performed excerpts from past and present Cameri productions of the British playwright's works.

The dybbuk, an ancient element of Jewish folklore, was made famous by \"The Dybbuk,\" a play, and later a movie, by writer and ethnographer S. An-sky. In An-sky's story, the spirit of a deceased kabbalist inhabits the body of his beloved, Leah, who is about to marry another man. In \"Demon\" the dybbuk, Hana, takes similar action, inhabiting the body of the groom because she was denied her own marriage due to her untimely death. Whereas An-sky's play was a reworking of folklore, however, \"Demon\" is a reworking of history. \"The whole country's built on corpses,\" one character says when told of the skeleton supposedly on the property. When Hana speaks through [Piotr], saying in Yiddish, \"Get out of my house,\" it becomes clear that the property is haunted because it was stolen from dead Jews. The \"Demon\" of the title seems less a reference to the spirit of Hana than to the demons haunting all the guests at the wedding. As the night wears on they get drunker and drunker, succumbing to what seems like a mass psychosis. \"Demon\" arrives at a sensitive moment for Poland. Since 2015 the right-wing Law and Justice party has governed the country, and the party's Cabinet approved a bill in August outlawing reference to \"Polish death camps,\" along with other assertions of Polish war crimes. While historians have affirmed that the concentration camps of the Holocaust were the work of German Nazis, not Poles, the law - which makes such references punishable by up to three years in prison - has been viewed as an effort by Poland to whitewash its history. \"You may think we took part in it,\" the government seems to be saying, \"but you only think we did.\"

The first \"character\" we meet in Marcin Wrona's coolly fascinating \"Demon\" is a yellow bulldozer, rolling menacingly through the empty streets of a Polish village. It's a harbinger, as well as a metaphor - but of what? \"Demon\" is a Polish-Israeli coproduction that is by turns deeply unsettling and absurdly funny. The film follows the arrival of handsome architect Python (Israeli actor Itay Tiran of \"Lebanon\") from England for the unambiguously happy occasion of his wedding. The groom is Polish, like his lovely bride, Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska), and her family. But we have the disquieting feeling from the getgo that he is apart, on his own, an innocent outsider who has (in horror-film tradition) unknowingly ventured into a situation of unimaginable dangers. Wrona and writer Pawel Maslona freely adapted the latter's 2008 play, whose title translates as \"Adherence\" or \"Clinging.\" The director's decision to shift the setting to a wedding was clearly inspired by the 1937 Polish-Yiddish film, \"Der Dibek\" (\"The Dybbuk\"), itself adapted from a play by Shimon Ansky.

\"The beauty of Shakespeare is that he is always relevant. A play like 'Hamlet' is like a diamond - from every angle, it reflects different light and different meaning. Our production of 'Hamlet' reflects Israel.\" Thus Omri Nitzan, describing the production that the Cameri, Tel Aviv's municipal and Israel's largest public theater, will be bringing to the Shakespeare in Washington festival. Nitzan, 57, is one of Israel's most prominent directors and is widely regarded as the foremost director of Shakespeare in Hebrew. \"I was attracted to Hamlet from a young age,\" he recalls. \"I sort- of dated Hamlet in the way that 16- and 17-year-old kids date a girl. I see Hamlet as a coming-of-age story. I remember when I was a young man, facing that world of adults. I remember the rage I felt, the frustration, the sense that power is built on sin. I was 17 when Israel conquered Jerusalem in 1967, and I remember being enraged at the messianism that surrounded me, just as Hamlet is enraged at the adults in his life. I thought it was all hypocritical and insane, just as Hamlet must think about the court of Elsinore. I remember growing pains, and the pain of helplessness. Perhaps that is why I always wanted to direct Hamlet.\" The costuming is modern yet evocative. \"Shakespeare dressed his actors in modern Elizabethan dress, even though the plot takes place in the 12th century,\" Nitzan explains. \"Costuming is an important part of the plot.\" Claudius wears a suit and tie, which Israeli audiences associate with politicians. [Rosenkrantz] and Guildenstern are dressed as if recently returned from a trek to India. Ophelia appears once in Converse All-Stars sneakers and a T-shirt and other times in a slinky gold lame dress that doesn't quite fit, as if to emphasize her immature sexuality. Hamlet wears a pea-coat, evoking the development of youth culture and consciousness and the failed naivete of the youth rebellion of the 1960s.

  Piotr ([Itay Tiran]) is a likeable chap who, following a whirlwind Skype romance, has travelled from England to rural Poland to marry Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska). While wandering around the house he and Zaneta will receive as a wedding gift from her father, Zygmunt ([Andrzej Grabowski]), Piotr discovers what look like human remains.

Fortunately, the rest of this Oscar-nominated war thriller doesn't continue in that vein. It doesn't come like a full-length, filmed history lesson at all. In fact, it's a pretty fascinating, sometimes disturbing tale about the emotional and physical toll of combat. He's supposed to clear the path, though things don't go nearly as well as planned. So, [Liraz Liberti] tries to prevent any further damage while his superiors make some contingency plans. [Itay Tiran] is good as one of Liraz's officers, as is [Ohad Knoller]. But Israeli TV star [Oshri Cohen] is the real standout here. He's a convincing, compelling lead, even when some of Liraz's seem a bit unbelievable or out of character.

Canfield reviews Demon directed by Marcin Wrona and starring Itay Tiran.

Such is the hard-won realization of Israeli Army gunner Shmulik (Yoav Donat) in Lebanon, Samuel Maoz's prize-winning film that removes all thoughts of glamour or glory from violent engagements. Think of it as the opposite of The Expendables. Asi might have an easier time of it if his subordinates felt they were doing something necessary. But all of them seem to lack conviction about the politically motivated conflict, and they're not even sure whom they're fighting or where they're going. Indistinct and confusing commands come from other Israeli military leaders over the radio, who use code words like \"Rhino\" and \"Cinderella.\" It is the definition of blinkered vision, but Asi doesn't seem to get it. He complains that Shmulik and [Yigal] aren't responding quickly enough to fast-moving events: \"You don't see the big picture!\"