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The Play
Yiddish Art Theatre program of The Dybbuk, by S. An-Sky. Illustrated by A. Godel.
The Dybbuk, written by S. An-sky nearly a century ago, is the most renowned work of the Jewish dramatic
canon with a storied and international stage history.
It was first produced in Warsaw in 1920 by the Yiddish
Vilna Troupe, then presented in 1921 in New York by Maurice Schwartz'
Yiddish Art Theatre; in 1922 The Dybbuk’s Hebrew version was performed in
Moscow by the Habima players in a production that is
regarded as the cornerstone of the nascent modern
Hebrew theater;
and in 1925 its first English-language version was
presented by The Neigborhood Playhouse in New
York. The play has been frequently revived and adapted, and
has inspired important musical and dance pieces, as well as several feature films, of which the best known
is the 1937 Yiddish-language feature produced in
Poland.
The Dybbuk was first published in Hebrew translation
in Moscow in the March 1918 issue of the Hebrew
periodical Hatkufa.
The translation, prepared by poet Chaim Nachman Bialik marked the very first publication the play. It was
commissioned in 1917 by Hillel Zlatopolski, a wealthy
supporter of Hebrew cultural activities, who intended it
to be produced by the recently formed Habima dramatic
group. The play has since been translated into
numerous languages including English, French, Polish,
German and Esperanto.
It made theater history in 1922 when it opened in
Moscow, where it was staged in Hebrew by the Habima
Theater, directed by Evgeny Vakhtangov),
Stanislavsky's brilliant protege. In 1937 it was given
its first and most successful cinematic adaptation in
a Yiddish-language feature produced in Poland. It had been
the most ambitious Yiddish talkie to date, and was
inspired to a large extent by the Vilna Troupe interpretation. This heavily expressionistic film has become the lens through which many in North America visualize the famous play.
Questions
1. Although audiences have been captivated by the play since its premiere,
some
cultural critics of the 1920s and 30s were highly critical of it. Try to
explain their ideological objections.
2. The play presents a colorful tapestry of various themes: romance,
eroticism, class antagonism, religious piety, mysticism, folklore, and pure
exoticism. Discuss why different productions have particularly emphasized
some of these elements but not others. In what way did they address
current social and ideological issues?
Reading
Nahshon, E. (1992) Hebrew, Jewish, Russian: Habima’s production of "The Dybbuk" (1922). Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe 2 (51), pp. 56-68.
Kaynar, G. (1998) National theatre as colonized theatre: the paradox of Habima. Theatre Journal, 50(1), pp. 1-20.
Serper, Z. (2001) "Between Two Worlds": the Dybbuk and the Japanese Noh and Kabuki ghost plays. Comparative Drama, 35(3,4).
Spitz, S. (1977) The dance of the Dybbuk. Judaism 104,26, pp. 467-474.
S. Ansky, The Dybbuk, Jewish Heritage Online Magazine.
http://www.jhom.com/personalities/ansky/dybbuk.htm
http://hdl.handle.net/1964/926
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