By the 1920s, H. Leivick already was regarded as one of the most influential Yiddish poets of his generation. Yet he still had a day job in New York hanging wallpaper. Ignoble? For a remarkable man who had already survived being sent to Siberia (and not in the figurative sense), life as a decorator-poet probably felt like a balmy existence.
Leivick’s creative achievements were legion — especially in the minds of those who specialize in the revolutionary Russian and Yiddish literature of the early 20th Century — but he’s best known for a long poem called “The Golem.” Although it was based on ancient Yiddish legend and set in 16th-Century Prague, Leivick’s fans sucked up his 1921 version of an old tale. Therein, a rabbi creates a fellow out of clay to protect his people and fight back against Jewish enemies, only to ultimately watch this pre-Frankenstein self-destruct and eat his own.
People saw echoes of Russian symbolism and an intensely sophisticated exploration of the Messianic themes of both Judaism and Christianity in the tale.
Fast forward to 2002. David Fishelson, the artistic director of the Manhattan Ensemble Theatre, saw in Leivick’s “Golem” echoes of the current Middle East conflict. Thinking time was ripe for a dramatic revival, he penned a new adaptation for his theater. And thus the Golem’s arrival in Chicago: Fishelson’s dramatic version opened Thursday night at the fledgling Chicago Jewish Theatre, in a local premiere directed by David Zak.
This is not the kind of thing you see every day in a Chicago storefront — the show is partly a spiritual experience, partly a fantastical and allegorical tale in a Tolkien mode and partly a work of poetry. As such, it’s interesting and, for anyone with an interest in Leivick, worth seeing. But while this production is ambitious and imbued with considerable creativity and intensity, it ultimately bogs down between its parts. And its ancient setting and overwrought style tend to overwhelm the poetry of the text.
The poor old Golem of Leivick’s poem has been ascribed all kinds of metaphoric weight over the last 80 years, from artificial intelligence to nuclear bombs. And that’s testament to the power of the 1921 writing (Leivick’s son, incidentally, lives in the Chicago area and was in the audience Thursday night).
There’s a powerful performance from Mark Douglas Jones as the rabbi who sets everything in motion, but Andrew Lines’ Golem is a strangely elusive and flat creative whose nascent passions never take hold. The Golem seems trapped in his era, when Leivick surely intended him to fly through time and remind us that, while we could all use a Golem from time to time, it is usually better to resist the temptation.
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“The Golem”
When: Through Feb. 29
Where: Chicago Jewish Theatre, 5123 N. Clark St.
Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Tickets: $25 at 773-728-0599
