How about a play performed in
Hebrew with English and Russian surtitles put on by an Israeli theatre company
that was founded by actors from Russia? Welcome to a new version of The
Dybbuk in its North American premiere produced by Gesher Theatre at the
elegant Elgin Theatre. If you did not make it to the Elgin Theatre on Saturday
and Sunday, you are out of luck.
S. Ansky wrote The
Dybbuk in 1914 in Russian and subsequently translated it into Yiddish
and the play was later translated into Hebrew. It has gained iconic status in
the theatrical pantheon which means it is manna for translators and adapters.
The current version is written Roy Chen, “inspired by S. Ansky, according to
program, a playwright and translator who is credited with translating some 40
plays into Hebrew.
Israel Demidov as Khanan on top of the synagogue roof. Photo: Daniel Kaminski
The Dybbuk has a fascinating plot
about small Jewish community in the nineteenth century where a young woman is possessed
by an evil spirit, a dybbuk.
The play opens
Fiddler-on-the-Roof style with a young man called Khanan sitting on the roof of
the synagogue telling God that he is in love with Leah. Khanan is passionate
and determined but he is described as a gimp. Whatever the precise meaning of
that word, it is derogatory and in the opinion of Leah’s father Sender, he may
be described as a loser. Sender wants Leah to marry the more sociably
acceptable Menashe. Khanan joins the dead.
We observe Jewish rituals and
traditions surrounding a wedding but before the marriage ceremony can be
concluded, Leah is possessed by Khanan’s spirit. The Dybbuk is subtitled
Between Two Worlds and indeed we go to the Underworld where Khanan joins the
ghost of Hanna, Leah’s mother and other people from village.
Leah’s grandmother Frieda tries
to exorcise the spirit that possesses her granddaughter and Menashe insists on
marrying her.
Director Yevgeny Arye with Set
Designer Simon Pastukh and Lighting Designer Igor Kapustin stage the play in a
dark, foreboding, smoke-filled and ghostly atmosphere. Much of the action takes
place in a small glass cubicle while other scenes are in the gloomy and
bone-chilling cemetery. There is some humour in the play especially as Frieda
attempts to find some formula or recipe to expel the dybbuk but aside from that
this is the murky world of the twilight zone.
Efrat Ben-Tzur plays the
unfortunate Leah and she dominates the play. Leah is the product of a
patriarchal society where she must obey her father and she is a woman in love
who becomes possessed by her lover’s spirit. The latter is almost a mad scene reminiscent
of Renaissance drama. These scenes place high demands on the actor and Ben-Tzur
fulfills them with exemplary talent.
Israel (Sasha) Demidov as Khanan
goes from the hapless gimp to a ghostly spirit in the underworld, all passion
and determination against insurmountable odds. A dramatic performance.
Doron Tavori as Sender is the
classic patriarch, controlling, demanding, unbending. In that tradition and in
that world he cannot be anything else and Tavori is thoroughly convincing.
Fira Kanter turns in a fine
performance as the sympathetic grandmother who tries what she can to free Leah
from her demon.
There is a fiddler and there is a
roof in The Dybbuk but there is no Tevye to sing “If I were a rich man”
or “Do you love me?” But there is an absorbing and highly dramatic play
featuring superb performances and fine-tuned directing and providing a fascinating
afternoon at the theatre.
____________
The Dybbuk by Roy Chen, inspired by S. Ansky was performed on
September 29 and 30, 2018 in a production by Gesher Theatre at the Elgin
Theatre 189 Queen Street, Toronto, Ont. www.ShowOneProductions.ca
My photos: http://r-lerman.ca/portfolio/gesher-theatre-the-dybbuk/
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