THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, November 14, 1980 19
New Dybbuk' Is Great Theater
By DAVID LIFSON
(Copyright 1980, JTA, Inc.)
NEW YORK — The most
deeply stirring play in New
York this season is the bril-
liant musical "Between Two
Worlds," a new but tradi-
tionally authentic version
of one of the world's greatest
plays, "The Dybbuk," now
at the Frank Theater. Noth-
ing on or off Broadway ap-
proaches this electrifying,
felicitous portrayal of an
undying love story, a love so
`Tong that after death it
in drive itself into another
body.
I believe that Sam Leve's
inspired setting provides
the power and simplicity
that in its starkness rivals
the best of the Greek
tragedy. As a lifelong de-
voted theatergoer, I've
never witnessed anything
that combines the sacred
conception of the brother-
hood of man rooted in the
past with a ferocious, fana-
tic, tender, rapturous, life-
intensifying religious pas-
sion, as does this evocation
of a far away Hasidic world
with its dramatic probing of
almost forgotten human
loyalties, failings, and
triumphs.
The author S. Ansky calls
upon us to suspend disbelief
as did Shakespeare in Ham-
let, and asks us to believe
that ghosts will walk and
commune with the living,
that the dead will enter into
the body of the living.
The ancient legend of
the Dybbuk (really con-
trary to Jewish Orthodox
belief — I Samuel, 28) has
the spirit of the dead im-
poverished student Cho-
nen enter the body of his
beloved Leah after he
dies in the synagogue
when he learns that she
has become betrothed to
another.
Possessed by the spirit of
her dead lover, Leah rebels
against the forthcoming
wedding.
As Leah, Joanna Peled
sustains a role not seen here
since Glenda Jackson's
Charlotte Corday in "Marat
Sade," and whom she
hauntingly resembles. Her
distraught father, Reb Sen-
der, seeks out the interces-
sion of the holy Rabbi Azriel
— enacted with dignity,
with the eternally abiding
comfort of religious devo-
tion seldom if ever
encountered on stage, by
Shimon Finkel who also di-
rected the play — to exor-
cize the Dybbuk.
Although the Dybbuk is
obliged to depart from the
body of Leah, the bride ex-
pires as her spirit goes forth
to unite with her beloved.
Historically, the prod-
uction of "The Dybbuk"
during the early days of
the Russian Revolution
and its subsequent prod-
uctions by major theatri-
cal troupes throughout
the world in many lan-
guages brought about the
disappearance of the
comic buffoon, the vulgar
portrayal of the "stage
Jew." The world dis-
covered, because of the
dignified, traditional
world of "The Dybbuk"
that the petite business-
man, the rabbis with
their medieval garb, the
lowly workers, the pedd-
lars, all had a richness of
soul out of which was dis-
tilled one of the world's
most noble lyrical trans-
figurations.
This new production uses
Ansky's original title "Be-
tween Two Worlds." He may
have been bemused by the
difference between this
world and "the other world"
of the hereafter; he may
have noted the dramatic
Contrast in the play between
the separate worlds of the
poor and the rich; or the
worlds of the joyful and the
woebegotten. Redolent with
tenderness and affection,
the play portrays the soar-
ing, abiding spiritual ecs-
tasy of the Hasidim.
The audience uncon-
sciously becomes involved
in the play's poetic richness,
with the inherent, superb
beauty of its music, and
with its idealized folk
legends, beliefs perhaps
primitive, customs and
supersititions. The customs
become ritual when the
pious bride suffers the
clutching beggars in the
traditional dance wherein
the cargmagnole of macabre
phantoms — boldly
choreographed to perfection
by Pearl Lang — symbolizes
chaos, ugliness and a confu-
sion that bedevils the inno-
cent and pure with a
foreboding of doom.
LAWRENCE M. ALLAN
President
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WOMEN OF JEWISH NATIONAL FUND
LAUNCHING OF
51st ANNUAL
DONOR CAMPAIGN
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18th, 1980
AT 12:00 P.M.
AT
TEMPLE EMANUEL
14450 W. 10 Mile Road, Oak Park, Michigan
HEAR 0 ISRAEL
OBJECTIVES OF
DONOR CAMPAIGN
By JOSEPH SHAPIRO
HEAR 0 ISRAEL .. .
When your daily work is done
remember your prayers to the Holy-one
it is an obligation, Jews know and obey
an obligation that is repeated every day
To complete our commitment to develop and revitalize the
standard of life of the inhabitants of Moshav Dishon, a strategic
settlement in Northern Galilee near the Lebanese border.
HEAR 0 ISRAEL .. .
No matter where you live
traditions remind us that we must give
charities with an open hand
charities of our faith we understand
This is part of the overall objective of the JNF to rejuvenate
and strengthen the vitally important Galilee and make it
a Jewish stronghold.
PROGRAM
HEAR 0 ISRAEL .. .
When this prayerful chant is completed
Ind day after day it is repeated
;he words hear o Israel, is a message of old
generation after generation it has been told
Guest Speaker - Rabbi Emanuel D. Rothenberg,
Director - Religious Dept. -
JNF of America
HEAR 0 ISRAEL .. .
You are a Jew, lying on a hospital bed
the Shema Yisroel, you have already read
Dear God, make me well, I pray to Thee
my faith in the Almighty will always be
Guest Artist - Marion Bates - Soprano; Accompanied
by Betty Pollens at the piano.
HEAR 0 ISRAEL .. .
is a message and a prayer too
reminding us that we are a Jew
to the Lord we offer, prayers every day
we never ask the Almighty, cometh what may
HEAR 0 ISRAEL .. .
The Lord our God, the Lord is one
there is none other, since the world begun
as Jews, we shall love the Lord with all our heart
from our religious faith, we shall never part.
DIAMONTOLOGIST
Dessert Luncheon will be served.
For further information - call JNF - 557-6644
SHIRLEY KRAFT,
PRESIDENT
,71
DEITY SILVERMAN,
DONOR CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN
BESS AXELROD,
PROGRAM CHAIRMAN OF THE DAY