Hanna Roth was an actress and singer. Roth, an Italian native, started off her career as singer, whilst also researching both Jewish and Italian folk music. At the end of the 1960s, she joined the Bimot Theatre company where she appeared in many productions, including Nissim Aloni’s Napoleon Dead or Alive! (1970), and the hit play, Only Fools are Sad (1968), which had over 500 performances in total.
Roth has acted on virtually every Israeli repertoire theatre stage and was a fixture on countless productions of many Hanoch Levin plays. Israeli children of the eighties will remember Roth as friendly neighbourhood baker, Hana, on the beloved local iteration of Sesame Street (1983-1986).
Highlights of her stage credits include Krum, Schitz, and Saturday, Sunday, Monday –at Haifa Theatre; Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Miser, and The Spotted Tiger at Habima National Theatre; Solomon Grip, Suitcase Packers, and The Actor at the Cameri Theatre, The Rubber Merchants at the Khan Theatre, and many more.
Roth has recorded several studio albums on which she sang in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino, including Pleasent [sic] Singing (aka Jewish Traditional Songs) (1968) and In Front of your Window (1969). In film, Roth is most prominently remembered for playing Clara – the mother of titular character, Alex, in Boaz Davidson’s 1986 cult classic, Alex is Lovesick. Two other films Roth appeared in include the late great Judd Ne’eman’s Fellow Travellers (1984) and The Galilee Eskimos (Jonathan Paz, 2007).
