“Carte Blanche” or the Art of Pressing Reset on the Story of Our Lives

Artists are the voices of those who don’t have one or choose not to own it.

Even when an artist reflects on their own story, they do so in such a way that it resonates with us — it inspires, shocks, entertains, or teaches us. That’s the ultimate purpose, anyway.

But the truth is few of them succeed. It takes an incredible dose of maturity for an artist to arrive at the peak of their expression, where they are going beyond making a statement but are giving us a piece of themselves in a way that holds meaning to us.

This is what I love about Art. It changes you by reflecting an image of yourself from a beautifully distorted mirror. Sometimes we like the reflection it sends us back, and sometimes we don’t. But true art makes us feel, gives us an experience worth being remembered.

It’s not every day you walk inside a theatre and leave it a few hours later as a changed person.

It’s not every day you get to hear a story that is so personal yet told with such an explosion of passionate creativity that it somehow perfectly mirrors your own.

And it’s definitely not every day you meet an artist with the depth, creative extravagance, and beautiful vulnerability such as Michal Svironi.

I walked inside that theater because Johnny Tal, co-creator and sound designer of the show, invited me to see the performance. Johnny has a way to manage people’s expectations with cleverness and humor.

“You’ll see, it’s a huge auditorium! You need to come early to make sure you can sit in the front, otherwise, you won’t see the actress alone on stage dressed in black and reciting her monologue.”

Yeah, right.

I admit, I half fell for it. I thought I was in for a heavy show with a pure monologue for more than an hour. I confess, I expected a lot of words and nothing else.

So I stepped inside the theater (the “huge auditorium” had a capacity of about 100 people), sat on the second row of benches, and patiently waited for the show to begin.

I didn’t expect the beautiful poetry, the laughter, and the tears.

I didn’t expect to be told such a personal story through colors, songs, paintings, and puppets.

I didn’t expect the sea of emotions emanating from Michal’s vulnerable, yet incredibly powerful, performance.

I didn’t expect any of this at all… And I fell in love.

“Carte Blanche” uses storytelling through almost every medium imaginable. Colors and the act of painting, movements, puppets, sounds, and music are as important in the story as the acting itself.

The opening scene shows Michal on center stage wearing a canvas on which she proceeds to paint her organs. As she progresses in her monologue, that canvas becomes a part of her, showing the progression from figurative anatomy to skin, and to fully dressed and finally ready to shed it and face the outside world.

From the very first seconds, we experience the messiness. The paint is everywhere, applied nonchalantly but yet so sensitively traced it communicates an ocean of emotions.

As the monologue progresses, we understand this is autobiographical. This is not only a story, it’s her story. But it’s not just about the story, it’s a backstage pass to the emotional entanglement most of us choose to keep secret. It’s the story’s perspective from the inside, from the guts pulled out in front of us on stage.

It’s a tribute to love and a cry of rebellion. It’s an homage to her heritage and massive fuck you to all that hurts and isn’t fair. And it’s messy because life itself is messy. This mess is the very nature of our existence, and Michal lays it all out in front of us to see, to feel, to experience.

Throughout the performance, we are invited into the intimate world of an artist who bravely bleeds with passion while remembering not to take the story too seriously. She makes us laugh the pain away, and helps us find beauty and poetry in the messiness of our lives.

And she does it compassionately, without judgment, without being hard on us, or on herself, because life is hard enough as it is and no matter our story, we are still here. And that alone is something to celebrate.

I hope Michal and Johnny will soon be touring the world with this performance because honestly, this work of art deserves to be experienced. But for the moment, if by any chance you live around Tel Aviv, or if the show tours somewhere near you at some point, don’t hesitate and get your ticket.

You might fall in love the same way I did.

For more information about the show and upcoming dates

• Visit Michal Svironi’s website
• Upcoming performances in Tmuna Theater (Tel Aviv, IL)
• Upcoming performances in Fringe Theater (Be’er Sheva, IL)

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