- February 17, 2026
- 6:42 pm
- Israel
Big premiere in Israel! “…The event will continue if the alarm lasts no more than an hour…” – with these words, this performance begins.
In May 2026, performances of the play “Odessa Alarm or How One Mishpucha Gathered in a Shelter” will take place in Israel, featuring People’s Artists of Ukraine Oleg Filimonov and Diana Malaya. This is a tour across six cities — Haifa, Ashdod, Rishon LeZion, Be’er Sheva, Petah Tikva, and Netanya.
Formally — a comedy in Russian with an Odessa “pronunciation”.
In essence — a stage conversation about life during wartime.
The play begins with a phrase that has long ceased to be a theatrical convention: “The event will continue if the alarm lasts no more than an hour…” This line sets the tone for the entire action. The audience immediately understands that it is not about a fictional alarm, but about the everyday reality of recent years.
Duration — 1 hour 40 minutes. Age restriction — 12+. Price range depending on the city — approximately 186–256 shekels.
Tour geography: cities, dates, audience
Shows are distributed throughout the country — from north to south.
May 7 — Haifa.
May 8 — Ashdod.
May 9 — Rishon LeZion.
May 11 — Be’er Sheva.
May 12 — Petah Tikva.
May 13 — Netanya.
Tickets are already available –
https://nikk.kassa.co.il/announce/85289
Cast:
Husband – Oleg Filimonov, Ukrainian theater and film actor, People’s Artist of Ukraine, member of the KVN team “Odessa Gentlemen”, host of the TV show “Gentlemen Show”, “Filimonov and Company”, “Camera of Laughter” and others.
Wife – Diana Malaya, Ukrainian theater and film actress, People’s Artist of Ukraine, serves at the Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater named after V. Vasilko, starred in films “Deja Vu”, “Liquidation”, “Island of Unwanted People” and others.
Organizers emphasize: the production was conceived as a gesture of solidarity with the Israeli reality, where sirens and shelters are part of everyday life. That is why the tour in Israel is perceived not as a standard tour, but as a precise hit in the context.
For the Russian-speaking audience of Israel, it is also a return to the Odessa cultural code — humor, intonation, family “mishpucha”, where in the cramped space of a shelter, characters suddenly unfold.
Production team:
Scriptwriters: Alexander Tarasul, Viktor Yavnik, Evgeny Khait
Director: Igor Slavinsky
Assistant Director: Ekaterina Lebedeva
Set Designer: Emzari Kiknavelidze
Music Editor: Sergey Dmitriev
Choreography: Pavel Ivlyushkin
Vocals: Margarita Chernik
Lighting: Vladimir Dubovenko
Photo: Artem Pelevan
Producers: Alexander Tarasul, Viktor Yavnik, Evgeny Khait
What the play is about and why it emerged after 2022
War as a domestic background
After February 24, 2022, Odessa found itself in the zone of regular missile attacks. Air alarms, infrastructure destruction, damage to the historical center — this is not an abstraction, but the background in which artists continue to live and work.
Oleg Filimonov said in a 2023 interview: comedy during war is not frivolity, but a way of psychological protection. According to him, if people are not given the opportunity to laugh, “one can go insane.” This position became the dramatic basis of the new production.
Diana Malaya continued to serve at the Odessa Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater named after V. Vasilko during the same period. In 2022, the theater relaunched its work in the format of “theater in shelter” — rehearsals and performances took place in protected premises. This was a forced but principled step: cultural life does not stop.
“Odessa Alarm” as a stage response
The play is not about the front and not about politics. It’s about an hour in a shelter.
About a family forced to wait out the siren together.
About irritation, fear, domestic conflicts.
And about laughter that arises where it seems out of place.
In 2024, the play was shown in Odessa on February 24 — on the anniversary of the full-scale invasion. In 2025, it was openly called “a comedy about life in wartime conditions.” This is not an advertising formula, but an accurate definition of the genre.
This is the material that the artists are now bringing to Israel.
Helping Ukraine after 2022: stage as a form of resilience
Public position and personal experience
Filimonov did not hide that his family experienced missile attacks in Odessa. In 2025, there were reports in the media that he installed a concrete shelter on his property — a measure of personal safety that shows the degree of threat reality.
This is not a declaration, but everyday life.
Theater work during the war
The Odessa Ukrainian Theater, where Diana Malaya serves, did not cease activities after the invasion began. It switched to working in a shelter format, continued to release premieres and maintain the repertoire.
Maintaining the stage in a city under attack is also a contribution.
Not in the form of collections, but in the form of cultural environment resilience.
International tours as a continuation of the conversation
When a play about alarm and shelter hits the Israeli stage, it ceases to be a local Odessa story. It becomes a shared experience.
In the middle of the material, NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency considers this tour not only as a poster but as a cultural bridge between Ukraine and Israel — two societies for which sirens and shelters have become part of reality.
The tours perform several functions at once:
support Ukrainian cultural visibility abroad,
create emotional contact with the diaspora,
transfer the conversation about the war from the plane of news to the plane of human experience.
Why this tour is important right now
The Israeli audience understands the dramaturgy of alarm without explanations.
The Ukrainian — lives it every day.
“Odessa Alarm” does not try to explain the war. It captures its domestic layer — an hour in a shelter where people remain themselves.
In conditions where news about the war becomes the background, such performances remind: culture does not fade into the shadows even under sirens.
And perhaps this is the main contribution of artists after 2022 — to continue playing when it would be easier to remain silent.
How to buy tickets
Shows are distributed throughout the country — from north to south.
May 7 — Haifa.
May 8 — Ashdod.
May 9 — Rishon LeZion.
May 11 — Be’er Sheva.
May 12 — Petah Tikva.
May 13 — Netanya.
Tickets are already available –
https://nikk.kassa.co.il/announce/85289