Peer Gynt in Israel A National Hero Returning from Exile?

Ibsen's Peer Gynt raises a central question with regard to Israeli culture: to what extent does the return of the Jews to their ancient homeland constitute a true "homecoming"? There have been three different productions of Peer Gynt in Israel. The 1952 production at the Habimah National Theater (directed by Sandro Malmqvist), 1971 also at Habimah (Yossi Yzraely) and 2003 first at the Kibbutz-Seminar and later at the Arabic-Hebrew Theater in Yaffo (Igal Ezrati). The chapter discusses how each Israeli production of Peer Gynt negotiated the notion of homecoming within Israeli culture, reflecting the historical context and views of the respective production teams.