The Yiddish Arts Ensemble will be performing “Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins” for the seventh time this year. It’s becoming such a classic that Lynn Shapiro, the play’s director, says, “Some of our friends call it the Jewish `Nutcracker.’ “
When Shapiro first read Eric Kimmel’s book called “Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins,” she knew she had the perfect story to go with the traditional Yiddish music of the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band. It tells the tale of a folk hero who lived in Eastern Europe from 1757 to 1811 and made a meager living as a court jester for a melancholy rabbi who needed some cheering up. Shapiro says that Hershel could well be the first Jewish standup comic.
Because Hershel’s job didn’t pay him very well, he traveled around the countryside doing odd jobs, and legendary stories grew up around him. The story that Shapiro has adapted for the stage takes Hershel to a village where some goblins are intent on preventing the townspeople from celebrating Hanukkah. The villagers see dreidls disappear, menorahs break and potato pancakes go splat on the floor.
“The goblins intrigued me because they are villains, but they are fun and goofy and the danger they pose isn’t scary. Hershel, in fact, finds a way to simply outsmart them. “He is a typical Jewish folk hero who vanquishes his enemy through wit rather than fisticuffs,” explains Shapiro.
When Shapiro first started directing the play, her children were only 5 and 7 years old, so she brought them to rehearsals and eventually cast them in the play. Now they play two of the eight goblins. “It wouldn’t be Hanukkah without Hershel,” says Shapiro. “It’s become part of our family life.”
Over the years she’s discovered that the tale is really an allegory for the original Hanukkah story. “It’s about people who are oppressed by tyrants, which in this case are goblins, and are even trapped by their own superstitions, and the triumph of the light is symbolic of freedom,” she explains. “It happens to take place during Hanukkah but it’s a very universal story.”
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“Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins,” 1 p.m. Sunday, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, $8.75, 847-673-6300; 3 p.m. Dec. 14, North Suburban Synagogue Beth El, 1175 Sheridan Rd., Highland Park, $5 in advance, $8 at the door, 847-432-8900; 12:30 p.m. Dec. 22, Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., free, 312-744-6630; 7 p.m. Dec. 24, Northwest Suburban JCC, 1250 Radcliffe Rd., Buffalo Grove, $10; 847-392-7411.
