THE DIRT ON GOLEMS

Andrew Johnston

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ARIAL CONTENT AND LANCIADE

II

0 2002 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
RELEASED BY TWPMETH CENTURY FOX

NOW PLAYING

BIRMINGHAM 8

3/29

248-644-FILM

LANDMARK MAIN ART

248-542-0180

2002

76

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from page 74

"I was less interested in creating a
physical golem and more interested in
the metaphor, how we become each
other's golem," he says in an interview.
One of his themes is the question of
control, and how
when creating a
monster —what-
ever it might be
— that one can
control, the thing
grows too large
and out of control
with the potential
to destroy its cre-
ator.
Schrank, author
of Miracle Man,
remarks that the
golem is one of
those universal
themes that's
always exciting,
like Hamlet, that
can't be visited
enough.

instigator of golem revival in
America."

Bringing Forth Life

"Storytelling is itself a mysterious blur
of creator and
creation," Ozick
has said. In The

Puttermesser

Papers,
Xanthippe, an
accidentally cre-
ated golem,
encourages her
creator,
Puttermesser, to
run for mayor
and she wins.
As Rabbi
Loew's golem
cleaned up
Prague, this
female golem
makes New York
City crime-free,
but eventually
she runs amok.
Not all of the
Sound
golem
genre
can
talk,
but Ozick's
And Stage
Xanthippe speaks in full sentences.
When David Fishelson first read
Michael Chabon's golem in The
Leivick's The Golem, he was "stunned
Amazing Adventures of
by how prophetic and rel-
Kavalier and Clay is,
evant to the day it was."
among other things, a
Robert Prosky stars
The artistic director of
precursor to the
in Manhattan
Manhattan Ensemble
Superhero figure and also
Ensemble Theater's
Theater says, "It's so
a metaphor for escape.
upcoming
much a play about if Jews
One of his main charac-
production of
pick up the sword, do
ters is named Sam Clay.
"The Golem.”
they perish by the sword?"
In an essay titled "The
He explains that the
Recipe for Life," Chabon
golem in this play is "like
describes how in looking
any creature alive, desper-
for information about
ately lonely. The rabbi is
golems, he found insights
forced to deal with issues of what it
into novel writing.
means to be human. It's a very mod-
"The adept [writer] handles the rich
ern story."
material, the rank river clay, and dili-
Fishelson adapted Leivick's play,
gently intones his alphabetical spells,
shortening it and crafting a new end-
knowing full well the history of
ing based on other versions of the
golems: how they break free of their
golem myth.
creators, grow to unmanageable size
"There isn't golem mania in 2002.
and power, refuse to be controlled.
Every year something pops up,"
"In the same way the writer shapes
Fishelson says. This is the first full-
his story — to bring into being a lit-
scale production of the play since
tle world that, like-God's, is at once
Joseph Papp produced it in Central
terribly imperfect and filled with
Park in 1984."
astonishing life." ❑
Guitarist Gary Lucas, who has per-
formed his score for The Golem in 15
countries around the world since its
New York premiere in 1989, will have
Manhattan Ensemble Theater's
a short story, "Me and the Golem,"
The Golem, adapted by David
published next year in an anthology
Fishelson and starring Robert
titled Kaballah: The Wisdom of
Prosky, runs April 1-May 12 at
Solomon.
55 Mercer Street, at Broome, in
"I'rn in the golem business," he
Manhattan. (212) 925-1900.
says, and adds, "I think I'm a prime

MUM

