Background on The Dybbuk

Background on The Dybbuk

The Dybbuk is the only play from the Yiddish Theatre that transcended the particular cultural context in which it was created. Within eight years of its premiere in 1920, it had been performed in Vilna, Moscow, New York and San Francisco, in Yiddish, Hebrew and English. It has been performed, virtually non-stop, in one version or another ever since.

Corey Fischer and Sarah Fry in TJT's 1989 Dybbuk

Reviews of ATJT’s 1989 production of Dybbuk:

"The power of A Traveling Jewish Theatre’s Dybbuk… lies not only in this classic story of ghostly possession but also in the company’s ability to create theatrical magic"

–Bernard Weiner, San Francisco Chronicle

Keith Davis in the 2004 Production

Slideshows of Dybbuk 2004: PDF [go] Windows Media Player [go]

TJT founder Corey Fischer appeared in Joseph Chaikin's 1977 production of The Dybbuk at New York's Public Theatre. Bruce Myer's, a core member of Peter Brooks legendary theatre company based in Paris, was also in that project. After The Dybbuk closed, Myers returned to Paris and began developing his adaptation of Dybbuk for two actors, while Fischer returned to Los Angeles to found TJT with Naomi Newman and Albert Greenberg. In 1989 TJT produced Myer's Dybbuk, directed by Mark Samuels (another veteran of Chaikin's Dybbuk) and performed by Fischer and Sarah Fry. TJT revived it in 1997, again directed by Samuels, performed by Fischer and Lise Bruneau. in 2004, Fischer directed it with Karine Koret and Keith Davis performing.

Karine Koret and Keith Davis in the 2004 Production

The Dybbuk is the only completed play by S. Ansky (pseudonym of S. Rappoport), an ethnographer who collected folk songs, legends and folk plays in the Jewish settlements of Eastern Europe in the years before 1914. This history of the play has become a legend in its own right. According to one source, Ansky first wrote it in Russian, translating it into Yiddish at the suggestion of Stanislavsky, director of the Moscow Art Theatre. Other sources describe how a number of Yiddish theatres rejected the play before the Vilna Troupe agreed to produce it. Ansky died one month before the first performance on December 9, 1920.

"By the time they get to Leah’s fabled exorcism at the hands of an ancient looking rabbi, we’re in their thrall. The exorcism itself, framed by lit candles, is an excitingly choreographed life and death tug-of-war."

–Misha Berson, San Francisco Bay Guardian

Read the SF Chronicle review of our 1997 production [go]

Corey Fischer and Lise Bruneau in TJT's 1997 Dybbuk

In 1922, the Hebrew translation by the poet Bialik was presented in Moscow by the Habima (later to become the national theatre of Israel). It has remained in the Habima’s repertory for over half a century. In 1926, The Dybbuk was presented on Broadway in English by the Neighborhood Playhouse; two years later, in San Francisco by the Temple Players and in Los Angeles by the Pasadena Playhouse. Films of The Dybbuk include a Yiddish version made in Poland in 1934, an American television special in 1960, an Israeli version in 1970. The Dybbuk has inspired at least three operas and a number of ballets and modern dances.

"… the surprises do not simply stem from Fischer’s and Ludlow’s range and versatility as performers. Nor do they spring solely from the pared-down, barely linear adaptation by Bruce Myers…What astonishes the playgoer are the bursts of gripping emotion—despite the play’s well known plot. The result is nothing short of astonishing."

–Winston Pickett, Northern California Jewish Bulletin

Bruce Myers’ remarkable two-actor adaptation of The Dybbuk reveals the most elemental, human aspects of the play. Its daring use of narrative and transformation are perfectly attuned to twenty-first century sensibilities. This is a work particularly suited to A Traveling Jewish Theatre’s approach to theatre: deeply exploring a specific cultural artifact to find its universality.