It`s widely recognized as the greatest play ever written in Yiddish, penned by a one-man Grimm Brothers of Jewish culture.
Moreover, ”The Dybbuk,” which loosely means ”the demon,” teems with theatrical riches: Satanic possession a la ”The Exorcist,” doomed matinee romance after Romeo and Juliet, the rich folk tradition of ”Fiddler on the Roof” and the religious pageantry of a Hollywood Biblical epic.
And yet Shloyme Anski`s 1918 classic hasn`t been performed professionally in Chicago in 35 years-mainly because of that very scope and size. Anywhere from 25 to 30 actors are required for its 80 roles. In one late scene alone, containing the enactment of an exorcism, 14 actors-seven to carry the holy script and seven to blow on rams` horns-provide background ritual.
But Monday night, ”The Dybbuk” returns in a new English-language production, fittingly enough from Skokie`s National Jewish Theatre in that company`s most ambitious effort so far. The offering is part of the troupe`s expanded professional horizons and the first to be directed by Sheldon Patinkin, now in his first season as artistic director.
”It`s a wonderful play, but one of the hardest I`ve ever directed,” he says. Patinkin, who is also chairman of theater and music for Columbia College, is a longtime fan. He took part in the last professional ”Dybbuk”
here-a 1953 production at the old Playwrights Theatre Club that featured Ed Asner and Barbara Harris in the cast. For the new mounting, he is adapting his own English version (from a literal translation and several others).
The story is one of magic, mysticism, mystery and revenge-albeit from beyond the grave-set in a small town in Poland at the end of the 19th Century. Channon, a poor young member of the ultraconservative Hassidic sect, is in love with Leah, the daughter of Sender, the richest man in the village. But Sender wants his daughter to have a rich husband, and, in trying to overcome Sender`s objections and win Leah`s hand, Channon becomes increasingly involved with magical rites and Satanic dealings.
When Leah`s engagement to a rich suitor is announced, Channon dies. Because of his Satanic involvement, Channon`s soul is condemned to wander forever. But, instead of roaming, his soul assumes the form of a dybbuk, or possessive demon, and takes over Leah`s body-dramatically enough in the midst of her pre-wedding celebration.
That covers about half of the 2 1/2-hour, four-act play (to be played here in three acts). The rest of the story charts the community`s efforts to deal with the possession-including a contest between the dybbuk and the rabbi seeking to exorcise him-as well as a few revelations that shed light on why the possession took place.
Although Anski himself described his work as a ”realistic play about mystical people,” Patinkin says ”The Dybbuk” is actually somewhere between Russian realism and 20th-Century expressionism.
”Though it tells a sad story about real people, it goes a little beyond realism,” Patinkin says. ”There are ritual dances from the community, and there are certain spoken asides during which the cast members freeze momentarily. The lighting is often focused expressively rather than naturalistically, and, of course, you`re dealing with a story that features both demons in possession and a messenger from God.”
The Russian-born Anski was a noted folklore scholar whose only other play wasn`t completed. He wrote ”The Dybbuk” originally in Russian in 1914 for famed director Konstantin Stanislavsky, but the censors of that day quickly banned it. Anski translated the work into Yiddish, and that version was performed in 1920 (the year of Anski`s death) by the Vilna Troupe in Warsaw. Two years later, the Habimah Theatre in Moscow gave the work a second, definitive production, directed by Eugene Vakhtangov, a Stanislavsky protege celebrated for his work with expressionistic dramas.
The set and look of a production is a key element in expressionism, and, Patinkin says, when he first began discussions with set designer Gary Baugh and costume designer Jordon Ross, ”We were thinking `Dr. Caligari meets Marc Chagall.` But we soon decided that would look too pretty. The subtitle of the play is `Between Two Worlds,` and it`s really about a lot of opposite worlds- heaven and earth, wealth and poverty, a small oppressed society within the context of a larger society. You can`t completely disregard the very real things the play says about real suffering and oppression.”
The dense thematic material of the play is even more complicated than its esthetic style. Moral failure, rather than mystical prowess, is the point.
”The main theme, if there is one, is that we are all connected and are responsible,” Patinkin says. ”God lays down the rules, but we choose to live by them or we choose not to. There`s a parable in the play in which a rabbi tells a man to look at a window and then look at a mirror. Through the window, the man says he sees other people, but in the mirror he sees himself.
”And the rabbi concludes, both are pieces of glass, but one has a thin layer of silver on it. Once something is colored with silver, one stops seeing other people and sees only himself.”
”The Dybbuk” is therefore wide panorama-complete with large wedding ceremonies, ritual exorcism, klessmer music and even a classic Hassidic chant used by Aaron Copland in his chamber music piece ”Vitebsk”-as well as message-rich human drama, ”our Christmas show,” Patinkin jokes.
He`s more serious when he adds, ”The first act is a lot like (Maxim Gorky`s) `The Lower Depths` in that you meet a lot of people and a lot of different ways of behaving out of which the story evolves. It`s a big, heavily textured play. It`s scary, and I`m scared.”
He is getting good help. His 26-person cast includes Lisa Dodson, who played Ophelia in ”Hamlet” at Wisdom Bridge Theatre a few seasons back, in the key role of Leah, who spends much of the play possessed by a man. Veteran performer Bernie Landis plays Sender, her father, and Jerry Jarrett (Tevye in Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre`s ”Fiddler”) plays the rabbi who tries to save her from possession.
Patinkin hopes it will all add up to a show that will attract theatergoers beyond the Jewish community. ”The Hassidic sect believes in joy as part of their love of God, and characters in the play frequently burst into song and dance. I really think `The Dybbuk` is a play for anyone who likes good theater, and I don`t think that of any other play in the Yiddish language.”
