Life Begins at 70

When other actors their age are considering retirement, Dov Glickman and Sasson Gabai enjoy the boom of their international careers, which actors half their age can only envy!  Life, love, sex and acting – they reveal it all in a special interview with Israel Hayom.

The coronavirus pandemic may have put “old people” aged 60 and over in the high-risk group, but at least two members of this group feel more alive than ever.

Unlike many of their retired peers, actors Dov Glickman and Sasson Gabai don’t spend their time just playing with their grandchildren. Both enjoy their acting and successful careers in both Israel and the United States.

“I want to enjoy what’s left,” says 72-year-old Sasson Gabai. “I want to make more and more of it, as much as I can. I have absolutely no intention of slowing down, on the contrary, I’m speeding up. “

“I feel like I’m getting younger every day,” says 70-year-old Dov Glickman. “Scientifically, a person is considered old when they start driving below the speed limit. Seriously, I checked with my niece, who does research on aging. Well, I’m not there yet. Professionally, this is the best period of my entire acting career. Without a doubt. I’m working on some excellent scripts, with some excellent partners and great writers and directors. “

“I’ve also reached a sort of peak in recent years,” says Sasson Gabai. “I was exactly 70 years old when I was invited to perform on Broadway in The Band’s Visit. I’m just beginning to realise what a major and unique professional opportunity this is. Playing at 70 in the Mecca of theatre is a summit. “

It is a conversation between two good friends who compliment each other, listen to each other carefully, understand each other, encourage each other and enjoy each other’s company.

Dov Glickman says they’re “parent spirits, like brothers.”

Sasson Gabai agrees. “Over the years, our relationship has gradually grown closer. A brotherly relationship “is a good description in our case. But I prefer not to talk about it too much, because it’s a precious thing for me and I just want it to grow.”

At the end of March, Sasson Gabai returned to Israel after a cut in the United States of The Band’s play due to the coronavirus crisis.

“I first waited three weeks in New York to see what would happen, because it wasn’t clear yet. The city was no longer New York as we knew it. It had completely changed, only Central Park remained more or less the same. Every day I walked at least two hours in the park with Dafna, my wife. “

Q: Did you quarantine yourself after your return to Israel?

“Yes, we quarantined ourselves for two weeks in our house in Ramat Aviv. We felt a combination of jet lag and shock. I went from working very intensively to being locked up at home. I wasn’t thinking in terms of right or wrong, but I needed time to adjust.”

“Uncertainty is unpleasant, but very quickly I got busy with future projects, reading scripts, putting things in order. All I had to do was stay at home, a home I love. As long as you’re not sick, it’s a very modest requirement.”

“These corona days have been very good for us,” adds Dov Glickman, whose partner for the past decade is 50-year-old Shlomzion Kenan, with whom he shares a house in central Tel Aviv.

“I’ve heard about couples who’ve gone crazy. We felt like nothing was missing from our lives. It was a quiet time, enjoying our pets, cooking, resting, talking, watching British drama, walking our dog Mumus.”

Sasson Gabai and Dov Glickman are among the veteran artists of the Israeli cultural field, they started working together only five years ago, in the second season of the TV series Shtisel.

They played two brothers, Shulem (Glickman) and Nuhem (Gabai). At the time, Sasson Gabai appeared on a number of shows on Israel’s iconic Zehu Ze program on Israeli television.

These days, they appear again side by side, in the second season of Stockholm.

They play a pair of close friends, Professor Amos Barazani (Gabai) and Yehuda Harlap (Glickman) who are immersed in the mystery surrounding the death of their good friend Professor Avishai Sar-Shalom (played by co-star Gidi Dov of Zehu Ze).

The second season opens with the funeral of Sar-Shalom, when a new character appears (played by Shlomo Bar-Aba, another Zehu Ze alumnus), who claims to be a close friend of the deceased, confusing everyone.

At 69, Bar-Aba is one of the youngest members of the cast. The series includes other actors ,Tiki Dayan, 71, Liora Rivlin, 75 and Shoshik Shani, 85 – three iconic Israeli actresses in their own right.

“The series has been put in the hands of actors eager for success in life and career, who have absolutely no interest in retirement,” says Sasson Gabai. “We love our profession, have passionate discussions about our work, discuss nuances as if we were just beginning. It’s more important for all of us than it was 30 years ago. We all have a strong work ethic and loyalty to the project, to the point where it becomes the most important thing in our lives. “

Q: Is it also because you are afraid that it will end?

“You know what? I don’t even want to think about it. Actors are always afraid of rejection, of being unwanted. An actor is always afraid of what’s going to happen to him after the peak. Ensuring your success and protecting your place requires effort and emotional strength. I am able to suppress these thoughts through hard work, and I have no reason to complain. I am just grateful for what I have. “

Dov Glickman: “I think not knowing is what makes playing is the best job in the world. It’s an adventure, and it excites me. Every project is a pregnancy, and you never know what’s going to happen to it after it’s born. There’s no ultrasound to tell you what happens. “

Q: After decades in the entertainment world, including periods of unemployment, what do you think has brought about change in recent years?

“The role of Shulem in Shtisel,” says Sasson Gabai.
“A huge role that gave a major boost to Dov’s career. I would watch him in Shtisel and I was amazed. Such precise and effortless reactions. To make an effort, to push and exert is not good for acting.”

Dov Glickman: “It’s true, it’s a development, a personal training that I’ve been perfecting for seven years,
 but the first season of Schulem was for me the best role I’ve ever played, and it came at the exact moment when I was ready to want to play,” he says, a
 role for which he won two awards from the Israeli Television Academy for his role in 2013 and 2015.
There’s a certain age when you learn to let yourself go as an actor, and you gain a lot from it. The passion is the same, the fire is the same, but you don’t feel that you have to prove yourself anymore. Twenty or 30 years ago, I couldn’t have done that. “

Staying busy

In addition to Stockholm and Shtisel , Dov Glickman has appeared in recent years in the series The Conductor , the films Big Bad Wolves, Driver and Laces (for which he won the 2018 Ophir Award for Best Supporting Actor) and the plays Glengarry Glen Ross at the Haifa Theatre and Angina Pectoris at the Tzavta Theatre.

Sasson Gabai has been just as busy. He has appeared in the Virgins series and in the films The Band’s Visit (for which he won the 2007 Ophir Award for Best Actor), Hunting Elephants, Kidon, The Kind Words, The Other Story, The Angel and Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem , for which he won the 2014 Ophir Award for Best Supporting Actor.

At the Beit Lessin Theatre, his professional home for the past 25 years, he recently appeared in the critically acclaimed television show The Father and Polishuk , in which he also starred.

He is married to author and screenwriter Dafna Halaf-Gabai, with whom he has two children – Adam, 22, a novice actor, and Uri, 20, a soldier who is a musical arranger in army bands. Adam now lives in Chicago and has appeared on HBO’s Our Boys and The Band’s Visit with his father.

Sasson Gabai has been playing in The Band’s Visit on Broadway since June 2018. Shortly after his arrival, the musical won 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

“I’ve played the role more than 500 times: 320 on Broadway in ten months and 200 more on the play’s U.S. and Canadian tour. We started planning our West Coast tour when the curtain came down. I’m really hoping that soon we’ll be able to do it again.”

“Broadway is an incredible experience. The power, the size, the professionalism, the precision, and also the warmest audience. So much so that the fans come to you on the street, and especially wait for you outside the theater when the play is over. Every time the play was staged, dozens of people were waiting outside behind metal barriers, and I would go among them to hand out autographs. I don’t remember ever being asked for an autograph in Israel. “

Her son, Adam, joined the cast when the play began its American tour.

“We have a stage together, so our contact on stage is limited,” he explains proudly. “It gives me the greatest pleasure to stand backstage and watch it. This is his first professional play, and he is wonderful. His presence made it easy for me, and Dafna was also with us most of the time, coming back to Israel from time to time to be with Uri, our second son”.

“Right now, Adam is in the United States, and we’re waiting to see what happens with the play. In any case, he’s going to audition for parties in the U.S. and Israel and see what suits him best.”

Q: How was the U.S. tour compared to the Broadway show?

“On Broadway, we played eight times a week. Twice a week with two performances a day, four with one and one day off. It’s hard work, just the way I like it. Moving every few weeks to a new city and a new apartment becomes difficult at some point. You get up at night to go to the bathroom and find yourself in the kitchen. It’s tiring physically and mentally. But I would do it all over again, and I would be happy to continue until further notice. “

 Q: Is it still better to move to a new apartment every two weeks than to sleep every night in a van in Israel?

“It’s different, but I’ve never complained about those trips to Israel. I never said I was fed up with it, even if it was a bit harsh. I don’t mind travelling and I don’t mind working hard. “

Actors dream that their acting becomes a success, then when it is a success, you complain that you have to travel and work hard? I’ll never understand that.

“Another thing I never asked for is a reduction in the number of weekly performances. My approach is that if you have a play and it works, take it.  Don’t ask questions, don’t ask for doubles and breaks, because it’ll be over, and you don’t know what’s gonna happen next.”

“We’re very good at complaining. In fact, it’s part of our charm. An Israeli actor gets into the van and says, “Nou,” and off we go again. “I admit it’s crowded and claustrophobic. You’re on the road for hours, and then you have to get on stage and be fresh and focused.”

“In the United States, there were no trips like this. In New York, I lived in a hotel near Broadway, and in other places, too, I could usually walk to the theater. By the way, from the minute I got to New York, I didn’t hear anybody complaining, either on stage or backstage.”

“I guess because the competition is so tough, when you have work, you enjoy it. You’re happy to do it, even if it’s eight performances a week. There are actors who do that for years. I don’t know if I could be happy working like that, but they don’t complain. “

Dov Glickman’s international experience is more modest.

Three years ago, he was in the film Murer: Anatomy of a Trial, shot in Luxembourg. The film is based on the true story of an Austrian politician on trial for war crimes as commander of the Vilna ghetto.

“I felt it gave me a sense of life abroad,” says Dov Glickman. In 2015, he participated in the filming of Joseph Cedar’s Norman in New York. For the past three years, he has been part of the cast at the Stuttgart State Theatre, participating in the play Birds of a Kind by Lebanese playwright Wajdi Mouawad, alongside Evgenia Dodina and Itay Tiran.

Q: You play the role in German?

“Yes, the whole play is in German, but I don’t really know the language. It was a dream: two and a half months of pleasant rehearsals, Shlomzion joined me and we got an incredible apartment in Stuttgart. The audience loved it – we had 15 minutes of applause. But there are two or three performances a month. I come for two days and go back to Israel, and it’s no fun. Not the kind of experience I’m looking for.”

“But these performances made me realize that what I love most is travelling the world as part of my job. I haven’t had the chance to work as intensely and powerfully as Sasson. It sounds so exciting and wonderful, I envy him. “

Dov Glickman: “I’m trying to convince Noa Yedlin to write a third season for Stockholm that will be shot abroad. In Sweden, for example. I have also suggested to the writers of Shtisel that Shulem gets up one morning, discovers that his son is missing and starts looking for him all over the world. “

Last December, Sasson Gabai returned to Israel for two weeks to film the new Stockholm season.

“The great thing about Stockholm is that the elderly are at the centre rather than being seen as a weak group,” laughs Sasson Gabai while Dov Glickman tries to calm down. “They can be somewhat pathetic, and they are certainly petty, haunting, anxious, but they are always active, ambitious, full of dreams, desires, impulses with a tendency to intrigue and complication. They talk about sex, they’re interested in sex, and it’s beautiful. Yes, folks. There’s sex after 70. “

Dov Glickman: “Is it necessary to explain that this subject is still part of our lives? One of the proofs is that very old Alzheimer’s patients lose all their sexual inhibitions and break all the rules. “

Sasson Gabai: “Some men lose their inhibitions and break all the rules without Alzheimer’s.”

Dov Glickman: “You know, I read recently that there’s this trend of people who are interested in life without sex. By choice.”

Sasson Gabai: “I can’t understand that. What’s the idea? If we’re here, isn’t it a shame to drop everything? You look at an old person and you forget that inside he’s still a young man. “

Dov Glickman: “Sasson, I think men are more childish than women.”

Sasson Gabai: “Certainly. We are children. Women are better than us in every respect.”

Q: You talk a lot about your wives.

“Of course, we’d better talk about it,” adds Sasson Gabai. “The truth is that Dafna and I have just gone through a very intense stage that lasted almost two years, which has strengthened our relationship. We gave a lot to each other and that was good. Dafna gave me a sense of home, of stability. I was coming back from the performances and she was waiting for me, just like after the performances in Israel. We talk, drink and eat together. She is with me. “

Q: Are you concerned about how the crisis will affect the cultural scene?

Dov Glickman: “I am very worried, and it will be horrible to live without culture. There is no life without music, television, films, plays. What are we sitting at home for? First of all to protect our health, but also to protect our basic values. So we can go back to our lives, our pleasures, go out, study, cultivate our interests. I don’t have any advice on how to do this, it’s not my job. I just want people to get their freedom back.

“Core values are being crushed, and it’s not just because of the corona crisis. Before the crisis, our leaders also tried to convince us that survival is a supreme value. This was not only politically motivated. “

Sasson Gabai: “Leadership must manage business and lead properly, not teach us the meaning of life. Make sure that our lives are healthy, fair and functional, and we will find their meaning by ourselves. In the field of culture, a lot of people have suffered.”

“The government should take this into consideration. The cultural field employs hundreds of thousands of people, most of them self-employed. It is not true to say that there is no way to support culture. There are reservoirs, emergency funds. The government should compensate our field, which has always been neglected and is fighting until the danger is behind us. “