# Romulus the Great, or the Last Hours of the Roman Empire > Haifa Events **Category:** theatre ## Description Romulus the Great, or the Last Hours of the Roman Empire, by Yigal Amitai, after Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Direction, set design and costume selection: Yigal Amitai. Illustrations and lighting design: Dani Amitai. Actors on stage: Yigal Amitai, Dani Amitai. Recorded voice characters: Karmel Ben Efraim, Dani Amitai, Yigal Amitai, Tamara Amitai. Assistant director and language consultant: Tamara Amitai. Sound and lighting operator: Adi Tzafrir. The Roman Empire is crumbling, collapsing, conquered by Gothic warriors advancing toward the capital. Romulus, the emperor, seemingly unconcerned by the situation, responds to the events and the grim reports brought by his ministers in a philosophical, amused, cynical manner, occupying himself with concocting liqueurs and playing the piano as an amateur. Julia, his wife, patriotic and statesmanlike, tries to spur him into action, but Romulus, it turns out, has a different plan, derived from a coherent political-moral doctrine regarding the fate and future of his kingdom — and perhaps of the entire world. Odoacer, leader of the conquering Goths, who arrives at Romulus's palace at the end of the campaign of conquest, is surprising and behaves in complete contrast to the expectations reserved for an enemy. Dürrenmatt defines his play as "an unhistorical historical comedy"; in the original there are 18 characters, of which this adaptation retains 2 on stage and another 4 as recorded voices. And roughly 3 hours across four acts in the original have been condensed into one tight, compact hour, depicting the last hours of Rome, up to its utopian-ironic ending — an ending whose absurdity only reality itself, on stage and off, can rival. Any implications or allusions to our lives these days and to figures moving about in our midst are entirely coincidental. Top of Form. This week I sat in the hall of the 'Haifa Municipal Theater' and watched, awed and riveted, every moment of the hour-plus during which I lived inside the magical wonder unfolding and enveloping me. I doubt I have ever seen such a perfect theatrical experience, or anything matching or surpassing it, in my many decades of love for theater, in Israel and abroad. Where to begin? The sight revealed to my eyes when the curtain opened — a small room, an armchair, old belongings, various props and a few pictures, used by the white-haired old man wearing a white toga and an old worn cloak, since he is still (as the play opens, in the summer of the year 476) called 'Emperor Romulus.' Here he is comfortable being alone, pondering his thoughts, and finding comfort in amateur piano playing and concocting drinks. Though being 'alone' isn't really comfortable, since the voices of those seeking his favor, those asking his advice, and those with ambitions and plans keep intruding on him, and he is forced to respond — and also to sound credible, fair, and understanding of others' feelings. In between, we hear his text — fragments of musings between one 'interruption' and the next. And here is the place to dwell on the text. The text is brilliant — tailored to the designed look of the room and its occupant (or the other way around), wittily and gently noting what a wise and seasoned person has to say about power, about war, about culture, ambition, and about peace, curiosity, innocence and purity. The encounter with the stranger who enters the room, the fairly young guest, uninvited but welcomed — is a textual work of art about an encounter between strangers who manage, within quite a short time, to understand each other, break stereotypes, and develop affection and even mutual loyalty. The intruder is Odoacer — leader of the Gothic nation, whose army now controls the capital of the empire, which at this very moment is becoming an 'ex-empire' and an important new province added to the Gothic kingdom. The dialogue between the two, who end their meeting with a shared toast — the Goth's beer and the Roman's wine with a pinch of cinnamon — is a hymn of praise to life going on: the populations continue to carry on and live as they are used to, and to come into contact with one another; without battles — the Roman troops have been disbanded, the Goths are settling and becoming citizens, and civil administration will be carried out through the sharing of knowledge, experience and labor. The play is not without allusions to later periods (such as wars and regimes from the recent past), and even to the very present. But these allusions are scattered gently here and there in the text and do not 'steal the show' or overwhelm the production. To my mind, what's wonderful is how this theatrical experience manages to house allegory, history, realism and surrealism, irony and human, humane and philosophical depth — all under one 'roof,' sweeping one into an intoxication of pleasure, passing through a breathtaking journey across the hour-plus of the play. In my opinion, this is a wonderful example of how one can make good theater even with relatively limited and modest means — provided that all the components are of the very highest quality. And first and foremost, of course — the talents. Not every playwright can produce a text of such quality as Yigal Amitai's. And not everyone can mount a production like this one (Yigal Amitai, did we already say?), nor give such a performance of the wise, clever, witty and good old man as the aforementioned actor, or of the role of the young, knowledge-hungry royal scion, like Dani Amitai... In my opinion, it would be very fitting and wonderful if every Israeli theater lover were to watch this production by the Haifa Municipal Theater. In any case, residents of Haifa and the surrounding area — run to see it. Dan Tadmor. **Date:** 2026-11-14, 20:30 **Venue:** Haifa City Center **Address:** Masada St. 36 **City:** Haifa **Price:** from 56 ₪ **Tickets:** https://haifaevents.kassa.co.il/announce/buy/214292 **Image:** https://pub-0a891185c33b4c5a8db7ede117f7c8e7.r2.dev/haifa-events/bravo/195997d4f9ec36229351b4197b5c8578.jpg --- **Canonical event page:** https://www.haifa.events/en/event/romul-velikiy-spektakl/ **Other languages:** https://www.haifa.events/he/event/romul-velikiy-spektakl/, https://www.haifa.events/ru/event/romul-velikiy-spektakl/ Haifa Events is an aggregator. Verify the date, price, and ticket availability on the official website before purchase.