Re: The People vs. The God of Vengeance

[Judy Pinnolis <pinnolis...>]

Saw this play. It was superbly acted and staged and the music was really
right on for mood and backdrop as well as action/emotion. Musically, Alpert
and Dawid's improvisational techniques worked very well. The improvisations
based on klezmer themes and at times, also on traditional prayer, but
superbly blended.

Also to mention... was that the first act was in Yiddish, and then redone
in English...which was really delightful... and  also reflecting the fact
that the play had run for years in Yiddish before getting the attention of
the censors. 

I also loved the switching between acting styles of the court "retelling"
and the actual "on set" action....Wonderfully exaggerated melodram to
brilliantly sensuous scenes... (another called it an action "fugue" between
the court and stage, the timing was so good)....

The layers and layers of nuance were wonderful: tension between the
immigrant generation and next, between English speaking and Yiddish
speaking, between the courts and freedom in the theater, between parents
and children and between the dreams of parents and children...between what
it took for immigrants to "make it" in America and tolls that took on
people...and between ideals of morality and what society might learn from
them...and.. a well told story.

all in all... depth in every quarter desired for theater.

Judy

At 10:12 PM 5/20/00 -0400, you wrote:
>At 11:35 AM 4/13/00 -0400, you wrote:
>>Rebecca B. Taichman's "The People vs. The God of Vengeance", based on
Sholem 
>>Asch's 1906 play, will run at Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven (CT) from
May 
>>8th to May 13th.
>>Original and traditional Yiddish music will be performed by Michael Alpert 
>>(voc, vl, acc) and Christian Dawid (cl, bcl, p).
>
>What an amazing adaption of this play! The eroticism of the original is 
>fully preserved, despite the fact that some facets of the original have
>been dropped in this adaptation that focuses on the court battle around
>the alleged "obscenity" of the play--of the english version of the play
>that had been appearing, without problem, in the =Yiddish= theatre for
>17 years around the world prior to have the chutzpa to appear on Broadway,
>whereupon an uptown Rabbi became worried that this was a shande for the
>poor goyim and got the vice squad to bust the cast.
>
>So, you can already see the parallels from the first part of the century
>to our own--an established Jewish community sometimes more worried by
>how it looks to others (although, I would contend that the American
>Jewish communty has changed much for the better in this last generation);
>questions of what one sees, vs. what one expects to see; the question of
>buying oneself salvation (again, although this reflects the Jewish 
>community I saw growing up, is it still so true today?); and, in both
>the play itself, with a focus on the lesbian scenes from the original
>(at the expense of the heterosexual scenes that were cut) also addresses
>the question of whether or not we are ready--we, the community at large--
>to deal with questions of homosexuality, onstage, or more importantly,
>in our society. Are we ready to acknowledge the right of gays and lesbians
>the same legal rights afforded by marriage as are accorded heterosexuals,
>for instance?
>
>Just an amazing, multi-dimensional, stupdendously acted and staged play.
>This at a time when the original is also being revived in Seattle. And,
>as Itzik noted earlier, the music, by Michael Alpert and Christian Dawid
>is superb; wonderful improvisations on klezmer themes that ground the
>play, give it flavor, become a character in the play at times. Truly a
>treat.
>
>ari
>
>
>

Judith S. Pinnolis
Reference Librarian
Coordinator for Publications and Training
Brandeis University Libraries
Goldfarb Library MS045
P.O Box 549110 
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
phone:781-736-4705
fax: 781-736-4719
email: pinnolis (at) brandeis(dot)edu

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