[ Modiya > Theater > The Dybbuk ]
Adaptations and Remediated Works
The Dybbuk/Between Two Worlds directed by Zvika Serper.
Since its premiere in 1920 The Dybbuk has been revived countless times in both Jewish and non-Jewish languages. Many of the productions followed the folkloristic/expressionistic paradigm of the foundational productions. Others have used this canonic work as a springboard for more radical theatrical enterprises. A particular case in point is the recent Israeli production The Dybbuk/Between Two Worlds directed by Zvika Serper at Tel Aviv University. Serper directed the play in the style of Japanese Noh theater, though in full adherence with Bialik's classic Hebrew translation.
1960 Playbill for The Tenth Man by Paddy Chayevsky.
A different approach to the classic tale can be found in The Tenth Man, a Tony-award winning play by American playwright Paddy Chayevsky.
Reviews of The Tenth Man
Rich, F. (1989) Review/Theater; Paddy Chayefsky's View of the Power of Faith. New York Times, December 11.
http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?
res=950DEEDE1531F932A25751C1A96F948260
New Plays on Broadway. Time Magazine, November 16, 1959.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811450-1,00.html
The Tenth Man. Description from Samuel French, Inc.
http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/cPath/32_77/
products_id/2102
Music and Dance Productions Inspired by The Dybbuk
1920, 25: English. Music by Joel Engel, Dance by TBD
1926: Opera, to be produced by Arthur Hammerstein, abandoned.
1929: George Gershwin signs contract to write opera based on Dybbuk, to premiere in 1931 (Libretto: Isaac Goldberg). Abandoned--unable to obtain rights.
1934: Il Dibuk (opera). Music by Lodovico Rocca (Italian) [NB: Rocca was not Jewish, but apparently lived for a time in Palestine before making the opera.]
1937: Dybbuk (film): Music by Krzysztof Komeda, H. Kon, Choreography by Judith Berg
1944: Ballet production planned (Jewish Ballet Creations): Music by Elya Jacobson, Dance by Simon Semenoff
1951: The Dybbuk (dance): Music by Siegfried Landau, Dance by Anna Sokolow
1951: Legend (exorcism scene from The Dybbuk): Music by Morton Feldman, Dance by Pearl Lang
1951: The Dybbuk (opera): Music by David Tamkin, Dance by Sophie Maslow
1954: The Dybbuk (play; 4th St. Theater): Music arr. by Thomas Mayer, Dance by Edward Caton
1958: The Dybbuk Suite (dance; on The Sound of Freedom/Look Up and Live) WCBS: Dance by Mary Anthony, Music by Joel Engel (Dybbuk Suite).
1960: The Dybbuk (drama; television/WNTA. Aired Oct 3 as a "Play of the Week"): Music by John Gruen, Choreography supervised by Anna
Sokolow, Dir. Sidney Lumet
1960: The Dybbuk (ballet): Music by Robert Starer, Choreography by Nora Kaye and Herbert Ross (performed at festivals in Berlin and Flanders)
1964: Neither Rest Nor Harbor (dance based on The Dybbuk): Music by Robert Starer, Dance by Sophie Maslow (for Madison Square Garden Hanukkah Festival; restaged in 1969 at 92nd St. Y).
1968: The Dybbuk Dance by Sophie Maslow (for Madison Square Garden Hanukkah Festival, as one section of a two-part work Scenes from the Yiddish Theater)
1968: Ha-Dibuk Israel/W. German film: Music by Noam Sheriff.
1974: Dybbuk Vatiations (dance): Music by Leonard Bernstein, Dance by Jerome Robbins
1974: Tzaddik (dance): Music by Aaron Copland (Vitebsk), Dance by Eliot Feld. An interesting piece, since both Feld and Judith Brin-Ingber
have described it as based on The Dybbuk, but all reviews only note some overt references to Eastern European life.
1975: The Possessed (dance): Music by Meyer Kupferman/Joel Spiegelman, Dance by Pearl Lang
c. 1975: The Dybbuk (opera): Music by Joel Mandelbaum
1977: Milton Barnes composes The Dybbuk: A Masque for Dancing
1980: Between Two Worlds (play; New National Yiddish Theater): Music by Leon Odenz, Lyrics by I. Perlov, Choreography by Pearl Lang
1980: Dybbuk musical piece by David Jaffe; c. 9 mins. (clt in A, 2 vln, vla, pno, offstage mandolin)
1986: The Dybbuk: Music by Alan Bern, Dance by Annie Loui. Movement/theater work at Brandeis University.
1988: Le Dibouk:(dance) Music by Joel Engel (from Dybbuk Suite) and Arnold Schoenberg (Genesis Suite/Concerto for Violin, mvmts1 & finale/Music for Accompanying a Film Scene/A Survivor from Warsaw); Dance by Maurice Béjart
1988: Dybbuk (dance): Music by Ian Dearden, Dance by Kim Brandstrup
1995: A Dybbuk (play): Music by The Klezmatics, Choreography by Mark Dendy
1997: A Dybbuk (T. Kushner): Music by The Klezmatics, Choreography by Naomi Goldberg
1997: Between Two Worlds (The Dybbuk) (Opera): Music by Shulamit Ran. Premiered in June at the Lyric Opera, Chicago. European premiere: May 1999, Bielefeld Opera.
1999: The Dybbuk: An Opera In Yiddish (Opera): By Solomon Epstein. Premiered at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in April; Performed in Tel Aviv in May at the Susan Dellal Centre for Dance and Theatre, Neveh Tzedek.
2001: Other operas by: Larry Lockwood (www.lockwoodmusic.com)
2006: Restaging of the play for Theater J/Synetic Theater, Washington DC; Irina Tsikurishvili, Choreographer.
Questions
1. More than any other Jewish play, An-sky's The Dybbuk inspired a significant corpus of works in various media. Can you explain the reason?
2. A recent Hebrew-language production of the play (directed by Zvika Serper) was staged in the tradition of Japanese Noh theater. The text was kept intact. Think of the relationship between playtext and theatrical text. Think of other examples when such liberties were taken (Shakespeare). Try to explain what happens when a text that is deeply moored in a specific culture is transported into a totally different theatrical language.
Reading
Serper, Z. (2001) "Between Two Worlds":"The Dybbuk" and the Japanese Noh and Kabuki Ghost Plays. Comparative Drama, 35(3/4).
Shatzky, J. (1983) Paddy Chayefsky: "Americanizing" "The Dybbuk." Jewish Currents, 37(1), pp. 24-27, 31.
http://hdl.handle.net/1964/929
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