What Happened to Us

“מה שקרה לנו” (“What Happened to Us”) – A Relationship in Wartime

Written and performed by: Yiftach Klein and Shiri Artzi

“What Happened to Us” is a moving, funny, and thought-provoking play about a couple during wartime (and peace). The story begins two weeks before the events of October 7 and unfolds across the time that has passed since then. Shiri Artzi and Yiftach Klein, a married couple in life and on stage, present everyday moments from the absurd reality of the past two and a half years in all our lives—openly, movingly, and humorously.

They distill the collective experiences of this period and examine, with compassion and humor, the questions occupying most of us: How do we live through a time that never really “returns to normal”? What happens to relationships, parenthood, or routine when intimacy is required to enter a perpetual “state of emergency”? “What Happened to Us” is an honest and genuine play about how to continue loving, arguing, laughing, and staying together amid the great turmoil of our lives.

“Highly recommended.”
“I haven’t laughed like that, enjoyed myself, or been so moved in many years.”
“I didn’t feel time passing, and I didn’t want it to end.”
“Everyone will identify with this.”

Photography credit: Hanan Assor

Shiri Artzi is a screenwriter, television professional, and author. She won the Israeli Academy of Television Award for Best Drama Series Screenplay for “In Treatment” and the Minister of Culture’s Award for Best Debut Book for “Mud” (Hargol, 2006). Yiftach Klein is an actor who has appeared in and starred in dozens of films, series, and plays.

The two have previously created works inspired by their relationship: In 2022, Artzi published “Stories from the Breakup,” about separation within a long-term relationship. Klein wrote, directed, and stars in the play “An Evening of Slides,” which deals with a relationship crisis, male vulnerability, and the intersection between the personal and the collective.

“What Happened to Us” is their first joint performance, which they created and in which they appear together.