Abstract

This paper will propose a looking-glass reflecting how female drama roles, placed in the narrative as marginalized immigrants, are represented in a mainstream repertory theatre. The model plays that are analyzed in this paper were written as claiming to criticize double standards regarding the acceptance and assimilation of the “welcomed and wished- for” immigrants. Reading these Plays from the perspective of feminist critic, reveals the representation of the central female characters to be suffering from a doubly-stereotyped characterization. They are stigmatized both as “women- stereotypes” and as “unwelcome-immigrant stereotypes”. The question is whether contrary to the playwrights’ attempt to criticize state institutes and hegemonic society, these plays unintentionally unveil the inherent stereotyping imbedded in the male playwrights “unconscious” world-view and gender-bias when it comes to female representations. This paper is based on a wider study (Levanon-Mordoch, 2005) that examined the texts of original plays, Israeli drama, in a major repertory theatre, titled “From Whore to Amazon - And Other Representations In Between: Representations of Female Characters and Gender Issues in Israeli Drama: Two Decades in the Cameri Theatre (1982- 2001)”. The theoretic fields underlying this study are feminist critical theories and studies about the inter- relations of sociology and theatre.